Evangelion: Regenesis
by Fyrstorm
Summary: Third Impact may have left its scars, but it's far from the end. Four years later, and the remnants of Nerv are still locked in battle with Seele, in hopes that the world can be saved. Besieged by nightmares, monstrosities, and her own confusing emotions, Asuka Langley Shikinami must try her best to survive, and bring about a bright future. An alternate take on Evangelion 3.0.
1. The Girl With the Patchwork Heart

**Evangelion: Regenesis**

 _Chapter One – The Girl with the Patchwork Heart_

.

 _The entry plug hummed softly, the quiet purr of its electronics familiar and soothing to her ears. She felt like she was floating, just barely suspended above the long seat she lounged on, held only in place by the gentle tug of the plugsuit's electromagnetic belt. As her eyes opened, she let her fingers slip around the exaggerated control sticks, grasping each one with a confident firmness._

 _She felt… happy. Not the type of happiness that drove people to leap up and announce their joy to the world, but something far more restrained—closer to contentment than exaltation. A simple kind of happiness, and one she hadn't felt in a long time. Not even the utterly_ ridiculous _suit she was wearing could take that away from her._

 _Patiently, she waited there, taking in everything around her. It wouldn't be long before the activation test started—but surprisingly enough, she didn't feel in a hurry to get it over with._

 ** _Crack._**

 _Her body tensed at the sound, its peace broken from the intrusive noise._

 ** _Crack._**

 _She looked down, towards the very front of the entry plug. Something was wrong. The screens were disappearing, swallowed up by a mottled red abyss._

 ** _Crack. Crack. Crack._**

 _With each horrible sound, more of the plug vanished, chunks of red moving in to surround her. As she shot upright in her seat, her heart starting to speed up, she found herself… adrift. There was nothing there, nothing supporting her but that all-consuming_ red _._

 _Something chimed, a multitude of tiny bells clicking and clanging against each-other, before she was pulled forwards, sucked into the unknown. Before her, a blue cross flickered into being, a swirl of sparkles spiralling around her. Faster and faster they moved, as something began to laugh, and laugh and laugh as something appeared in the centre of the cross—_

Asuka.

 _—and the laugh was a laugh of glee and the something came forwards and she knew she knew what it was—_

Asuka.

 _—but she couldn't act she couldn't run away couldn't escape because it had caught her and it knew that and she knew that—_

Asuka!

 _—and faster and faster they moved and its hand rested on her face and where it touched her skin it burned and burned everything burned as the Angel yes Angel grabbed her held her tight with its many burning hands it was hungry yes hungry and she was going to—_

"Asuka!" someone yelled, as a pair of hands seized her by the shoulders. The girl's eyes snapped open, panic still driving her to get out of that blue and red hell—before lucidity set in a moment later. Her heart still thumping like a runaway train, Asuka Langley Shikinami sucked in a breath, and focused on her surroundings.

Instead of a fluid-filled entry plug, she lay in her bed, on the right side of the room she'd shared for three years. It was a bit of a messy place, with everything slightly off-kilter and crowded for room—but neither the European girl nor her roommate were much for cleanliness.

Said roommate stood bent over her, one knee planted on top of the mattress, and both hands firmly set on Asuka's shoulders. Dishevelled tresses of brown hair hung from her head, not even tied back in the simplistic twin-tailed style that the brunette had usually worn. A pair of bright pink frames sat askew on her nose, a y-shaped crack running up the left lens. However, this wasn't anything new. What _was_ new—at least for Asuka—was the frantic look the girl's blue-green eyes held.

"…M-Mari?" Asuka asked uncertainly, as she tried to tilt her head up. The brunette trembled, her hands balling up and scrunching the old t-shirt that the gold-haired girl wore for pajamas.

"You were… having another nightmare, Asuka," the girl whispered, before finally releasing her grip. Asuka's frown deepened.

"…'Asuka'?" she repeated. "Mari, you don't—"

"—I don't call you that except when I'm worried, I _know_ ," Mari interrupted. "But… I-I _am_ worried, Asuka! This… this is the _third time_ this _week_ I've seen you going through this. I… I don't know what to do."

Mari had always been a bit of an oddity in Asuka's eyes, ever since she'd met the girl three and a half years ago. On one hand, she was both bold and incredibly impulsive, seemingly acting on gut instinct half the time, consequences be damned. If she had any regard for her personal safety, the girl must have lost it long before they'd met, judging from how many times she'd ended up in the infirmary. She also seemed to have very little filter between her brain and her mouth, assuming she had one at all—most social cues didn't seem to register with her at _all_.

That said, she wasn't all bad. When Asuka had first woken up, scared and uncertain what had happened, Mari had been the one to explain things to her. Later, she'd volunteered to let Asuka bunk with her—which had resulted in their current sleeping arrangement—rather than having her stay all by herself. The brunette was quite possibly the friendliest person she'd ever met, and surprisingly seemed to actually seek out her company. She was optimistic, and cheerful, and kind of selfless…

However, Asuka had almost never seen her like _this_ — _especially_ not to the extent she showed right now. Mari looked… afraid.

"I…" Asuka swallowed. To be honest, she didn't know what to make of this, having awoken from a nightmare to go straight to a tearful roommate in the space of seconds.

"Mari, let's just… deal with it later," she offered. "I can't… can't think right now."

Reluctantly, Mari nodded, and stood up, one hand reaching to adjust her glasses to a straighter angle.

"Okay," the girl replied softly. Asuka sighed, and pushed herself upright, now no longer as encumbered by her roommate's proximity. The gold-haired girl blinked a few times, waiting for her bearings to come back before she did anything. As she swung her legs over the side of the bed, Mari retreated a few steps, still hovering around her like a moth around a lightbulb.

Lazily, Asuka's eyes tracked over to her bedside table, focusing on the digital clock resting on top of it. She scowled.

"It's not even five in the morning yet? _Really?"_ the girl groaned, and hung her head in frustration, bemoaning the sorry state that had become of her sleep schedule. While her roommate might have been up and about at the time the clock gave, Shikinami preferred to get up at _least_ an hour later, if not longer.

 _Not like I can just go back to sleep either_ , she thought. _Damn nightmares…_

The worst thing was that, as far as Asuka knew, it was the same thing each time. It was _always_ the same thing—the plug, the abyss, the Angel—and it had stuck with her since that time, three and a half years ago. She'd thought it was getting better, and she was finally starting to be free of them… only for this week to prove her wrong.

.

"What am I supposed to _do_ now?" the girl sighed under her breath, not really expecting any answer as she buried her hands in her hair.

"H-hey, Asu- er… Princess?"

Asuka's eyes opened, looking up through the curtain of hair that hung in front of her face. Mari had retreated a bit more, and taken a seat on her own bed, directly opposite the girl.

"You know," the brunette offered, clearly making an awkward attempt at nonchalance. "The tea and coffee the galley serves… it's not half bad. Would you care to…?"

Just like that, her mind had shifted back to the other oddity. She knew Mari was both friendly _and_ pretty weird—but this was its own type of weird, one that she had far too little experience with to be completely comfortable. This was just _odd_ , even for someone like Mari.

On the other hand, the girl was starting to feel the effects that her lack of sleep was having, now that her heart had stopped trying to leap out of her chest—and she _was_ kinda hungry now…

.

"I… guess," Asuka replied, cautiously accepting Mari's invitation. The European stifled a yawn, and smacked her lips a few times, before she rose up. "Just… gimme a second."

.

[-]

.

A few minutes was all it took for Asuka to get herself to as loose a definition of 'ready' as she cared to follow. Since there wasn't anything formal scheduled for today, and no real threats around, the girl could afford to be casual. Her outfit had been thrown together with minimal effort, chosen purely by what felt comfy; long pants, a t-shirt, her dark red tracksuit jacket, and the soft cap that Mari had once given her as a gift. Her hair had been done up in her usual style, two long streams of it held up by a pair of A-10 neuro-cranial clips with the rest of it left free and mostly out of her face. And then there was the eyepatch. It wasn't much, just a triangle of black fabric over her left eye, but it served its purpose.

Mari's own style was casual as well… but in its own way entirely. The twin-tailed brunette gladly kept pace next to Asuka, dressed in her cracked pink glasses, a pair of red stockings, and a bright yellow sundress Asuka would have sworn was nicked from her own wardrobe—if it hadn't been obvious to her that Mari wouldn't have fit very well into anything Asuka's size.

The walk from their quarters to the galley wasn't too long, though that was more by virtue of the way that the _Over the Rainbow_ was set up than any special privilege they had. That, and the repurposed supercarrier had served as their home for just over three years, so both girls knew its layout like the back of their hands. With both these factors in play, it would have been easy enough for one of them to strike up a conversation… but Asuka didn't really want to, and Mari was still being oddly considerate.

It was only a few minutes later that they finally reached the galley. Asuka stumbled forwards an extra step, her reflexes screwed up by an unexpected onset of tiredness.

" _Woah_ there, Princess," Mari warned, steadying the girl before she could run into anything. "How about you just… go find us a seat or something. I'll get the drinks, alright?" The girl replied with a minimalistic nod, one just big enough for Mari to notice. The bespectacled girl smiled back with something approaching her usual cheer.

"Okay then! You want anything specific, Princess, or should I pick for you?"

"I don't really care," Asuka replied, as she sat down at the nearest table. "You can choose, Mari—just make sure it's something with _caffeine_."

"Roger that, Princess!" came her roommate's reply, before she scampered off towards the serving area, leaving Asuka to be alone with her thoughts.

The girl sighed.

.

The problems had all started on _that_ day, four years ago—the day she'd constantly relived, over and over in her dreams. She'd volunteered to take the place of one her teammates, and be the pilot for the activation test of Evangelion Unit 03. What she hadn't known was that the synthetic lifeform had been infected by the Ninth Angel, until it had swallowed her up, and entombed her within the Evangelion. Asuka's memories after that were… distorted—possibly the result of the Angel unintentionally copying its own experiences into her mind.

Whatever the reason, the girl personally remembered what had happened next. Evangelion Unit 01 had been deployed, the Angel had beaten it into the ground, and then-

 _…And then_ , Asuka thought, grimacing at the image of the purple Eva tearing the Angel limb from limb, eyes burning with a berserker's rage. The Angel itself had done enough to her… but _that_ monster was what had taken her eye—and many other things, too.

According to Mari, another Angel had appeared not long afterwards. With Asuka unavailable, her now-roommate had hijacked her Eva Unit 02 and fought the monster alongside the other cyborgs. It hadn't gone well for them; Unit 02 had been crippled, Unit 00 had been _eaten_ by the Angel, and Unit 01 had ran out of power before it could wound its enemy. Then… well, Asuka had seen the footage recovered from that day. Somehow, the purple Evangelion had reactivated, and turned into something she could _swear_ was another Angel—she'd never seen anything that had shown as much power as Unit 01 had on that day. It had annihilated the Tenth Angel, yanked out Unit 00's core from its body…

…and initiated the Third Impact.

Mari's explanations had gotten a little hectic then, and Asuka didn't remember all the details from them. However, the basics of how they'd all ended up where they currently were weren't hard to find. The interruption of the Third Impact, the appearance of the so-called 'Evangelion Mark.06', the evacuation of Nerv headquarters and Tokyo-3… after which Asuka had finally been awakened from her six month coma, only to find just how screwed up the world had end-

"Princess, I'm back!"

Mari's cheerful call snapped the girl out of her thoughts immediately, before a tantalizing smell reached her nose a few seconds later. Asuka turned, curious as to what her roommate had brought. The brunette slid into the seat next to her, and set the tray down halfway between them on the table.

"This one's mine, and that one's yours, okay?" Mari said, pointing to the cup on the right of the tray, and then to the one on the left side. Asuka nodded, and grabbed the leftwards cup, before lifting the beverage up to get a sense of what exactly Mari had chosen for her. The liquid inside smelled of spices, its depths obscured by the milky cloud that filled it—pretty nice for a first impression. Intrigued, Asuka raised the cup to her lips, and took a sip.

 _"…Hmm,"_ the girl mused, brightening up at the taste. She spared a glance over at her roommate, who returned the look as she slowly mixed a sugar packet into her own drink. "It's good." Mari nodded.

"Uh-huh. Kinda surprised I never saw you going for the chai tea before—I _thought_ it was gonna be something you'd like."

"Well, I…" the girl trailed off. "Honestly, I just don't think I really cared to try anything else. I just wanted to get through things; I'm not exactly a morning person, you know."

"Oh, _Princess_ , it's _fine_ ," Mari remarked nonchalantly, waving her hand in a dismissive manner. As she raised her own cup to her mouth, the bespectacled girl flashed her teammate a cheeky grin. "Besides… with your attitude, it's not _that_ surprising you prefer to sleep in."

Asuka rolled her eye, and gave Mari a light-hearted thwack in the shoulder, prompting a bout of snickering from the girl.

"You're _ridiculous_ , Mari."

"Mhm!" The British girl just nodded happily in agreement, and took another sip of her tea. Asuka followed suit a few seconds later, enjoying the taste of the hot beverage. To be honest, even those few, short, teasing lines between them had lifted her spirits a little more from what they'd been a little while ago. Mari may have been ridiculous, but her ability to pull Asuka out of her moments of gloom was something the girl greatly appreciated.

Asuka took her time with her drink, partly to savour the new flavours it brought, and partly to avoid burning her tongue. Her roommate seemed to have no such qualms, and—while she didn't quite _chug_ her tea—downed hers a lot quicker, apparently not minding the heat as much… and then waited eagerly for Asuka to finish, instead of rushing off to the serving area by herself.

As she set down her empty cup, the European girl decided just not to question it.

"So…" came the other pilot's next question. "You up for breakfast as well, Princess?"

Asuka smiled, and faced her roommate.

"Sure," she replied, rising from her seat. "Why not?"

.

[-]

If there was one good thing to be said about the Second and Third Impacts, it was that even at an early hour, the ocean breeze was far milder than the chilly gust it had once been. And thanks to this, despite having seen it many times before, the view that one could get from the upper deck of the _Over the Rainbow_ was still something that hadn't gotten old for Asuka. She could see the entire fleet—and everything else on the crimson sea, all the way to the horizon.

When Nerv had evacuated Tokyo-3, they'd needed somewhere to go—and with the landscape's rising contamination and an apocalyptic death cult hunting them down, there hadn't been any place on land where they could easily set up shop again. So instead, they'd taken to the sea. Now, the entire Pacific Fleet and more served as their headquarters, letting the remnants of Nerv continue with their mission, and evade their new enemy. It wasn't a perfect solution… but _damn_ , if it didn't look impressive.

The massive assortment of vessels lay out all around the girl, their metal skins gleaming in the morning light of the sun like a knight's armour. Shadows cut across the blood-coloured sea from the ships' sides, quivering where they passed through the waves. Above, the dawn sky was a vibrant gradient of hues, shot through by wispy streaks of cloud. A breeze rippled through the air, its soft whine intermingling with the relaxed rumble of the supercarrier's engines below.

However, the best thing of all was how _open_ it was. Asuka didn't feel crowded, didn't feel confined… from up here, it felt almost as freeing as piloting Eva did.

.  
"You know… that's one pretty sight."

Asuka glanced over, to where Mari leant against the railing, a contented smile spread across the brunette's face.

"Eh?" the girl wondered. "I'd probably have gone with 'impressive' rather than pretty, but… yeah, I guess it is." Mari's lips seemed to twitch in response, before the bespectacled girl looked away, turning her eyes back to the fleet.

"…Let's just enjoy it," Asuka murmured, letting the wind blow past her. "No talking or anything." Mari nodded compliantly in response.

With that matter settled, the girl returned to her watching, letting herself be lost in the massive, wide-open space, absorbing the sight of both sea and sky.

Unfortunately, the peace didn't last.

"Captain Langley?"

Asuka frowned, her relaxation annoyingly interrupted.

The girl turned around, levelling her piercing gaze at whoever had turned up to bother her. Almost instinctively, Lieutenant Hyuga Makoto flinched back, before the bespectacled man regained his composure a little.

"What is it?" she asked slowly.

"Colonel Katsuragi has… requested a meeting with you," Hyuga explained. "She asked that you come as soon as possible."

The girl sighed, and stuffed her hands in her coat pockets as she leaned back against the railing. A few choice words were muttered under her breath, as Asuka gazed up at the sky.

"…Fine," she said. "Let's just get this stupid thing over with and done."

Asuka straightened up, and moved away from the railing, before glancing over to her roommate.

"See you in a bit, Mari."

"Later, Princess," the brunette said, responding with a casual wave of the hand.

Asuka walked over to the Lieutenant, her fury having cooled to mere irritation. The man nodded, and set off through the door. Still a little reluctantly, the girl followed.

.

[-]

The door swung open, Hyuga poking his head in before Asuka could get a glimpse of the office's sole resident.

"Colonel, Captain Langley's here," the man reported.

"Thank you, lieutenant," came the current leader of Nerv's response. "Send her in, that's all." Hyuga nodded, and stepped back, no longer blocking Asuka's entry. The eighteen-year-old girl didn't need another hint, and promptly walked in, before the door was closed behind her.

Gendo Ikari, the previous leader of Nerv, had—from what little Asuka had seen of him—been a cold and disquieting man, who'd barely spoken to anyone outside a few select people.

Colonel Katsuragi was practically his opposite.

The woman leaned back in her seat, a puffy red cap set down next to the pile of papers on her desk, and a similarly coloured coat hung on the chair itself. They didn't look too uncomfortable to Asuka, but the woman never seemed to wear them during casual situations, instead preferring a snug-fitting sweater and pants—quite the change from what the girl had seen her wear at their apartment before Third Impact.

One of the dark-haired woman's hands unlaced from behind her head, and gestured to a chair in front of the desk.

"Take a seat, Asuka."

The Eva pilot did so without hesitation, slouching back in a similar manner to the Colonel herself.

"So, what's _so_ important that you had to get someone to drag me down here, Misato?" Asuka asked, her familiar relationship affording her the casual use of the woman's first name—something Misato didn't really mind in this case. "I was trying to enjoy the view a little."

"Well, for starters, you're overdue for your regular psychological report," she answered. "And seeing how you're… not exactly the biggest fan of Ritsuko, I thought it'd be easier to get it finished if _I_ was the one to do it."

Asuka frowned.

"Really? A psyche evaluation is _that_ important?"

"Considering Nerv doesn't have the luxury of swapping out our pilots if something happens anymore, yes," Misato replied, sitting up straight as she did so. "Remember before you were cleared to use Unit 02 again? We _had_ to put all our work into making sure Mari was stable, because we didn't have any other pilots available at the time. And since you two are leagues better than any dummy system, it's important to make sure you're both mentally healthy enough to continue your duties."

"…Fine," the girl relented. "And I can get _why_ it's important—I'm just pissed that you decided it had to take place _right now_." Misato sighed, as she slid a few pieces of paper closer and pulled out a pen.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll try to get through this with as little fuss as I can. Now…" the woman looked up. "How have things been going so far? Just within the last few months or so."

"Mostly fine," the European girl shrugged. "Mari's as excitable as always, but she's not a problem. I'm doing… alright. Could probably be better, but I haven't had any crazy mood swings or whatever recently."

"However…" she added, unsure if she really wanted to reveal her new problem to Misato. Yes, she was supposed to be in a psyche evaluation, but that didn't change how she felt about sharing this.

 _"However?"_

Reluctantly, Asuka bit the bullet. It wasn't like keeping this secret was going to do much for her anyways.

"Recently, I've been… having nightmares," she admitted. "Again." Misato frowned, and stopped scribbling down notes.

"Explain."

"They're the same ones that I had back during my recovery—the ones about the Ninth Angel," Asuka said. "I… I'd thought I was getting _better_ … at least, up until today. I had to deal with my third one this _week_." The girl sighed.

"…Really, it's because of Mari that it wasn't _worse_ ," she muttered. "She woke me up, just as things were getting bad, dragged me down to the galley for an early breakfast, and… and she was just… nice." And that was part of what baffled her, really.

"Asuka?" Misato asked. The girl looked up, and gave a little nod of acknowledgement.

"I had some… other reasons for calling you down here, originally," she admitted. "I'd been planning on organising an assault force to take back one of Seele's stolen manufacturing plants in a few weeks, with you spearheading the operation. This was supposed to run it over with you—but really, your mental health is going to be more important. We're in more than a good enough shape to wait on doing it." The woman paused, and took a breath. "Now, I know you said you were mostly fine, but if you're having _more_ than just these nightmares…"

"I'm _not_ ," the pilot replied defensively. "And—look, you really don't need to put off an operation just because of me! It's not like I can't still fight or anything!"

"And _I_ don't know if this is just a fluke, or something else!" Misato shot back. "I'm not just doing this because I want to, Asuka—I need to make sure that you're in the best condition that you can, and I'm _not_ going to let a potentially compromising issue just sit around unaddressed!"

.

"…I know you don't want to just sit around," the dark-haired woman said, her light-hearted persona gone. "I know you want to go out, and _do something_ , and prove that you're not someone who needs to be coddled and held back for reasons that you think are stupid—because _you're Asuka_ , and that's what you _do_. But until we know that this really _isn't_ going to be a problem, I want you to _not_ do that, at least for a while. Just… I don't know."

Asuka sighed, slowly slouching down on her seat. Misato was right; she _did_ want to prove herself, _especially_ now that the woman had brought something up and promptly shot her down.

"…Okay," the girl mumbled.

"Look, here's a suggestion," Misato offered. "Afterwards, could you try to forget I said anything about the mission, and just… go back to what you were doing before? I'm guessing that it was pretty nice, hanging out with Mari before I dragged you down here, doing whatever it was you were doing. Right?"

"Mhm," Asuka replied. "…We were just up on the top deck, having a look. Pretty peaceful… for the most part."

Misato nodded.

"Well, it certainly sounds a lot nicer than sitting around in an office, I'd say," the woman said, her tone losing its harshness. "Asuka? Do you think you could maybe do that forgetting thing for me?"

A reluctant sigh. On one hand, it sounded kind of silly—but she didn't have anything else, and it wouldn't hurt for her to try, even if it _was_ silly.

"…I guess I can give it a shot," Asuka mumbled.

"Then that's it," the woman said, leaning back in her chair once more. "For now, I don't need anything else from you. You're dismissed… Captain."

"…T-thank you, Colonel." Standing up, Asuka gave a bow.

As she turned to leave, ready to go and find Mari again, the pilot heard three last words from Misato.

"Good luck, Asuka."

.

[-]

.

Asuka hoped Mari was still there. Hoped that—once she made it through the long, steel-walled corridors, and finally reached the open air again—she'd find those bright pink frames. Hoped that the girl hadn't wandered off, and left. Because if she had…

…Well, that was the sort of loneliness that Asuka didn't like. _Betrayal_.

Spurred on by the disquieting thought, the girl's stride increased. Her feet clanged loudly against the metal flooring, pounding like the beat of a drum. Or a heart.

 _Tap, tap, tap, tap_ …

 _Why am I thinking about this? Why_ would _I think about this?! Stop thinking, dammit!_ The girl thought angrily, as she pulled open the last door in her way—and came face to face with Mari.

The British girl—officially designated the 'Fourth Child', though at eighteen years old it was quite the stretch to call either her or Asuka a 'child' anymore—rested lightly against the railing, her eyes closed as she swayed side to side on the balls of her feet, grooving to the beat of some invisible tune… and she was quite obviously enjoying it, judging from the smile plastered across her face. That, and the singing was a dead giveaway.

"-Oh, pretty _baby!_ Don't bring me down, I pray – oh, pretty baby, now that I found you, stay!"

For a minute, Asuka stood there, her pent-up tension bleeding away as she watched Mari sing and dance her heart out to herself. She'd known about Mari's more musical habits— _heard_ them sometimes, mostly during combat deployments—but accidentally running into the girl smack dab in the middle of one such instance was something she'd never really expected to happen.

That was when Mari's eyes happened to open.

"I love you, baby…" the bespectacled pilot's voice trailed off, her dancing coming to a swift halt alongside it. The girl still wore her happy grin, though now with a hint of a blush to it. "…Ah. Hey, Princess. I didn't expect you'd be _back_ this soon, so I… uh…"

Asuka continued to stare, as Mari tried to regain her grasp of language.

"You know, just some practice, that's all…" the girl explained, scratching the back of her head. "A bit of Frankie Valli…"

A smile tugged at the corner of Asuka's mouth. Something about the situation, and Mari's apparent embarrassment was just… funny. She didn't know what it was, but the more she looked at the other girl's reactions, the funnier it was.

Asuka snickered, accidentally cracking a grin. Mari's eyes shot over, her reddened face frozen with a far more awkward smile.

 _…The idiot's blushing like a schoolgirl with a crush or something._

At that thought, combined with the astonishing expression her roommate had, Asuka's remaining composure broke. The girl burst out laughing—not in derision, but a combination of glee and relief mixed with a smattering of other emotions. A few seconds later, she heard Mari join in as well, layering in hesitant giggling that quickly rose to the brunette's typical cackle. It may not have made sense, or had any reason behind it, but neither of them cared at the moment.

Not one little bit.

.


	2. Everything You Ever Dreamed

**Evangelion: Regenesis**

 _Chapter Two – Everything You Ever Dreamed_

.

Once, Asuka Langley Shikinami had a doll.

It wasn't a very big one—just something around the size of a hand puppet—but the size didn't really matter. No, Asuka had cared about it because of what it could do. For her, other people were just horrible, and she'd tried to have as little to do with them as possible.

So instead, she'd had the doll. The doll was a receptacle… a support. For when things felt bad. For when Asuka hadn't gotten the praise she'd wanted and deserved. For when she'd just needed to talk, and being around people was just too _unbearable_ for her.

Of course, things were different now.

For one, she'd lost the doll. Back, when Nerv was evacuating, things had been left behind, and Asuka had no say in what stayed and what went. And so, the tiny puppet had been forgotten in the ruins of the Geofront.

She didn't hate people. Not anymore. Not when there was Misato, who had helped her, and guided her, and respected her, despite everything that had happened. Not when there was Mari, who had accepted her, and coaxed her, and befriended her, and seemed like she was never going to leave. In the wake of the Ninth Angel, how could she hate people like that?

And lastly, she'd found something new to share with—to talk to when people wouldn't do, who wouldn't talk back or reveal her secrets to _anyone_ else. Something that—when she really, truly needed one again—could be her doll.

The teenaged girl strode down the narrow side-passage, taking a route that had been set up during the ship's refit to allow transit to a certain location very quickly if needed. In normal hours such as these, it was mostly empty, so the girl wouldn't have to worry about running into anyone.

Asuka's pace began to slow towards the passage's end, before she stopped, confronted by a door. Her fingers wrapped around the handle, and twisted. It was unlocked.

And so, the Second Child pushed the door open, and entered.

.

The chamber was a sharp contrast to the passageway. While the latter was small, and cramped, this place was truly massive in size—a room more than a hundred metres in both length and width, topped with a segmented roof that had been designed to retract, and expose its contents to the open air. A multitude of swinging catwalks and cranes branched off from the rim and centreline, criss-crossing over two great, rectangular pools that took up most of the room's floor. Each was filled to the brim, not by water, but by a reddish, copper-scented liquid.

That, and an eighty-metre-tall Evangelion Unit.

Asuka had entered close to the rightmost pool for a reason; it was the one that held the Evangelion she'd come to see. Slowly, the girl strolled along the right side, making her way down the edge of the rim to one of the catwalks. Both Evangelions lay on their backs, their feet pointed towards the bow of the ship and their heads towards the stern. That red liquid bath—LCL, an organic, oxygenated fluid used for many things related to Eva—immersed them almost completely, leaving only their heads and necks above its surface.

Unit 02, _her_ Evangelion, was a colossus of red and white metal, the smooth plates sheathing its limbs and body designed to allow its athletic physique as large a range of movement as possible, while still providing optimal defense against attacks. Bits of other hues mixed in with the main swathes of colour—yellow around its deltoids and knee cap fins, black in the great rectangular wings on its shoulders and the armour bands on it biceps, and orange topping both pelvis and two-pronged forehead crown. Its helmet was narrow and squared-off, with alternating bands of red and white running off from its quartet of eyes. Even now, with the girl far more cynical at the world than her younger self had been, she still found something beautiful and proud about the cyborg.

As she took the crosswalk above its collar, however, the mecha's scars became far more apparent, all left over from Mari's failed fight against the Tenth Angel. The right side of Unit 02's face was slightly asymmetrical from the left, the upper section of it patched by a greyish, bulging section of metal—an artificial sensor array that replaced the eyes it had lost during combat. The lower eye was orange and flat, contrasting heavily with the domed green lenses of the other three.

However, even more obvious than the missing eyes was the mechanical left arm. The fight had left the original joint warped and distorted, and missing several nerve clusters, making it almost impossible to reattach the arm—and leading to its synthetic replacement. The prosthetic arm was the same length as Unit 02's flesh one, but clad in bulkier, grey-tinted armour, with matte black combat textiles covering the inner workings of the joints. A large brace encircled the shoulder joint, providing a mounting point for the mechanical replacement.

In a way, Asuka found it a little ironic. Unit 02's injuries were almost a direct mirror to her own most notable scars. While its right eyes were gone, and its left arm replaced, it was the Second Child's left eye that had been taken, and her right arm that had suffered the most from the Ninth Angel. She'd forgotten just how much of her body was synthetic or cloned tissue now…

Asuka shook her head. No, she hadn't come here to reminisce about her old injuries—she'd came here for the Eva. For Unit 02.

Sighing, the girl lowered herself down, sitting criss-cross on the catwalk before the cyborg's uneven visage. She took a breath.

"Well, I'm back," Asuka announced. She didn't expect the Eva to actually hear her—it wasn't like these things had conscious minds anyway—it was just instinct.

"…I've been… having dreams, recently," the girl said. "N-not just the nightmares, but… well, other things. Similar things."

Unit 02 said nothing.

"Like last night? It… it was about me and Shinji. He was pressed up against a wall, and I was…" Asuka swallowed, remembering just the barest flashes of the disturbing dream. "… _strangling_ him. I don't know why, but I _was_. I mean, I don't _hate_ him—it was his _Eva_ that ruined everything, not that… soft-eyed idiot—but in the dream it was like we were completely different people or something."

"And then he turned into that purple monstrosity of an Evangelion," she concluded, scratching the back of her head. "And that was it." Asuka glanced up, meeting Unit 02's four-eyed gaze. "I don't really know _why_ I'm having these things, or _what's_ causing them again… I guess it's probably something about that damn Angel and what it did to me, but that doesn't explain why it's happening _now_."

"So what am I supposed to _do?"_ she asked, looking for any sort of response from the two hundred and sixty foot cyborg. However, Unit 02 is far less talkative than her doll had been. Its green right eye flickers, the sensor aperture under the lens dilating a miniscule amount for just one second. And then nothing.

Asuka sighed. At the very least, the mecha was good at listening without asking questions.

"Anyways, moving on now," she said, circling around to something else.

"Mari's been acting… weird, recently," the Second Child began. "Not exactly _normal_ , or anything, but… well, I guess a little more… _caring_ , maybe? I mean, it's a given that she's pretty friendly and all, but this is different, you know?" Her head tilts inquisitively. "Do you have any idea? After all, she's been _your_ pilot more than a few times before."

02 remained silent.

"…Guess not," Asuka mumbled. It's a little silly, expecting her Eva to actually _answer_ her questions like it's a person—in fact, she'd probably freak out if the thing actually _did_ talk back to her—but there's a sort of comfort in knowing there's someone to direct these rhetorical questions to, even if she still didn't have the answers she wanted.

"I'll just have to figure it out myself then," the girl said aloud, as she stood back up. Her right eye glanced over, catching another view of the synthetic lifeform, before she began to walk out. "See you later, _nigoki_."

She had just made it out of the door, when the combat alarm started to blare.

.

[-]

.

For a few seconds, Asuka stood frozen in place, the calls of 'all hands to battle stations' and 'hostile signatures inbound' washing over her like the ocean's waves. Then something buzzed angrily against her thigh, jolting her from her trance. The Second Child shoved her hand into the pocket, extracting the phone, and holding it up to her ear as she accepted the call.

"S-Shikinami," she announced into the microphone, mentally cursing herself for the unprofessional stutter. Misato's—no, Colonel Katsuragi's voice replied to her.

"Asuka, get to Unit 02! We've got inbound Teal Patterns—it's the Nemesis Series!"

With those last four words, the Second Child twisted all the way around, rushing back through the doors.

"Nemesis?" she asked, as she ran up a short staircase on the left, which led to the pilots' changing room.

"Nemesis," the woman confirmed. "They were spotted bearing north initially, heading right for us, before they disappeared under a cloaking cocoon a few seconds later. As far as we know, there's anywhere from two to five of them, so be ready for a challenge. Mari should be with you in a few minutes."

"Roger that. Shikinami out," she replied, and hung up.

Asuka suppressed a grimace at the news. The 'Nemesis Series' units had shown up a year after Third Impact—a mass-produced line of weaponised cybernetic organisms, seemingly cobbled together out of Evangelion pieces and controlled by autonomous means, which Seele had used to terrify and subjugate in the following years. There were three known variants thus far, each one big, ugly, and hideously strong. At times, they almost seemed more like someone's attempt at creating Angels—something supported by their borderline Blue Pattern signatures. A cloaking cocoon meant one of two things; either there was a fourth variant out in the field, or the approaching Units were Code 04c types.

Neither option was particularly appetizing for Asuka.

Continuing on with her task, the girl tossed her jacket onto the changing room's bench, and stripped off everything else but the eyepatch and A-10 clips. Before she could distract herself with the multitude of white scars and pale slash of synthetic skin that crossed her flesh, Asuka had already reached out to her locker, and withdrawn a beaten-up red and black one-piece; her Plugsuit. With years of practice under her belt, it only took half a minute and three muttered curses before the Second Child had fully donned the suit. As usual, the inactive garment was a little loose, seemingly too big for the girl's frame—until her fingers depressed a pair of buttons on her wrist, causing it to instantly seal flush against her skin with its characteristic _zip-hiss_.

"There we go," Asuka said to herself, turning to make her exit. As the girl started down the stairs, Mari passed by, grinning and breathing heavily. Absentmindedly, Asuka wondered just how far away the brunette had been from the hanger, and how fast she'd had to get here, before abandoning the line of thought. The Second Child glanced over her shoulder for a second.

 _…_ _Eh, I can spare_ one _moment for teasing._

"Hey, Fourth!" She yelled. "Just remember; it's putting on a plugsuit, not giving yourself a full body massage! Don't get up to any shenanigans in there like you did last time!"

 _"_ _Oh,_ bite me _, Princess!"_ Mari shouted back, her voice muffled by the doors. She clearly wasn't _really_ angry—the brunette had spent more than enough time working alongside the girl to know when she was just prodding, and Asuka had made it pretty obvious. That, and Mari never really seemed to care what people thought of her habits.

Asuka smirked as she stepped out onto a walkway behind Unit 02, where a multitude of hydraulics had raised its back out of the LCL. The Eva's Entry Plug stuck out across the middle of the path, its hatch already open to receive her. The girl climbed over the side, and dropped into her seat. Above, the hatch sealed shut, swallowing her up in darkness.

Granted, it wasn't complete darkness. The inner walls of the Entry Plug glowed softly, shining a faint yellow light across its segmented, golden shell. Asuka reclined on a tapered, throne-like saddle, with a control panel up above her legs, and a large butterfly grip within reach of either arm. No longer troubled by the rush to get in the Eva, the girl let out a sigh, and closed her eye.

.

"Evangelion Unit 02," she whispered. "Begin start-up protocols."

Smoothly, the Entry Plug retracted inwards, sliding into the cyborg's back before the armoured cover closed up. Tiny vents around the base and walls of the cylinder opened up, air bubbling out as copper-scented LCL started to pour in. Asuka took one last breath as the blood red liquid passed her head, and promptly exhaled, trying to expel as much air from her lungs as she could—otherwise, the first few lungfuls of LCL would be more than a little unpleasant.

Fortunately, when Asuka drew in her first breath, the discomfort was minimal. Her eye opened, sweeping across the now red-tinted interior, waiting for the sequence to continue.

She didn't have to wait long.

The golden walls of the Entry Plug turned transparent, and a spray of colours flashed along the outside, before finally giving way to the external feed from Unit 02's cameras—the segmented roof, the walls, the LCL bath… all of it. The fluid inside the Plug had been completely ionized, becoming as transparent as air, and nearly as weightless. A tingle ran up her spine, causing the girl to shiver involuntarily.

 _Here it goes. Last step._

Asuka took another breath, readying herself. She'd piloted before, yes, but things had sometimes felt… interesting, ever since the Ninth.

"Unit 02... Final links prepared… Plug depth locked…"

"Begin third stage connections."

 _ASUKA_

And there it was. Unit 02 embraced her, mind and soul, its boundless strength flowing into her frame. Asuka felt the neural bond strengthen and solidify, linking the cyborg's controls directly into her. The LCL seemed to warm, as the lights and readouts on her throne flashed, and a holographic band popped into orbit around her head.

Asuka sighed, letting her hands loosely wrap around the enlarged control grips beside her as the electromagnetic belt tugged her a little closer into her seat. She knew their synchronization was confirmed, even without the instruments telling her so.

Even so, there was one thing left to do—so she could _really_ confirm the bond. It was just a little habit she'd picked up after she'd finally been allowed to pilot again, mostly for comfort. Asuka let her right eye shut. A test.

She could still see.

A little smirk crossed the girl's face; Unit 02 had not disappointed. While she may not have had a left eye to use anymore, her connection let her see as if she did,

And it was because of that effect that Asuka noticed the rectangular hologram popping up on her left side a few seconds later, displaying the smiling face of one Mari Makinami on its surface.

 _"_ _Hey! Ready, Princess?"_ the Fourth Child asked eagerly. From what Asuka could see of the other girl—which wasn't much, given the portrait-like nature of the holo-intercom's visuals—she'd made it into her own plugsuit; a cheerful pink and white affair with a black '05' stamped on the collar, in the same place Asuka's '02' marking was.

"Obviously," the golden haired girl answered. "I got here before you, after all."

 _"_ _Yeah. Well, you know, just checking."_ On-screen, the holographic readout popped around Mari's head, the same way it had for her after the third stage link. Of course, Mari _would_ be the sort of person to chatter while she synced with an Eva.

 _"_ _Anyways, Unit 08 and I are doing fine over here,"_ Mari reported. _"We're good to launch whenever you are."_

Asuka nodded.

"Then let's do it."

.

[-]

.

Naturally, launching an Evangelion had changed after Third Impact. Without the Geofront, the cyborgs couldn't just have their storage cages drained of LCL, and be fired into position by linear rail. Instead, both Unit 02 and Unit 08 were stored close to the upper deck of the _Over the Rainbow_ , under a sliding cover that could retract away to let them enter or exit the storage pools. In order to aid them in this, both Units lay on a series of extendable hydraulic armatures, which could rotate them up to a ninety degree incline—after which it was a simple matter for one of the Evas to detach and walk about. It was a little slow compared to the launch catapults, but the short trip more than made up for that.

Unit 02 stepped away from its cradle, its steps confident and professional as it stood tall. Asuka didn't feel the weight of the Eva's power cable, but she knew it was there; a long, superconductive cord plugged into the small of her Unit's back, providing it with energy tapped straight from the _Rainbow's_ nuclear reactors.

"So," she asked, directing her question to another holographic icon nearby. "About how long until these things finally show up?"

 _"_ _Based on our data about the 04c model, the Magi predict that the Nemesis Series will hit the edge of the fleet in about ten minutes—more than that, if they aren't taking a straight path,"_ Misato replied. _"That should be more than enough time for you to arm yourselves and get ready."_

 _"_ _Roger that!"_ Mari said. Asuka just nodded at the icon.

"Mhm."

 _…_ _Ten minutes, huh? I can work with that._

Now decided, Asuka turned her Eva to the right side of the ship, where one of the armament containers was attached—after all, only a complete _idiot_ would try and fight something like the Nemesis Series without a proper weapon. With little effort, Unit 02 tugged on the access handle, and the rectangular slats on the container's front sprung open, revealing a small array of several different weapons. Before she made her choice, Asuka paused, and glanced over Unit 02's shoulder for a second.

As expected, Mari and her Evangelion were already on the move.

In some ways, Unit 08 was kind of like Unit 02's little sibling. Both of them were standard production models, and both used the same genetic base—giving both Evas a rather athletic build and a quartet of eyes—but 08 was clearly different.

While the basic shape of its helmet and armour were similar enough, Unit 08 had a flatter, more prominent forehead, a pair of fins over its ears instead of the nose horns, and a completely different optical setup. Instead of a quartet of sensors, two glowing, vaguely trapezoidal blue lines traced over its eyes, wider on the top and narrower on the bottom.

And, of course, there was its colour scheme. Unlike Unit 02, with its bold reds and whites, the younger Eva had a darker, more naval palette—a combination of slate blue and stormy grey, interspersed with a couple orange markings around its joints and chest. Altogether, it had the effect of making Unit 08 look kind of shark-like, and certainly more aggressive than Unit 02 did.

The blue cyborg stood over on the other side of the deck, bending over as it examined the contents of its own container.

 _"_ _Let's see,"_ Asuka could hear Mari mutter to herself. _"Pallet rifle, pallet rifle, Thunder Spear that probably won't be easy to_ use _right now, prog sword…"_

"Just go with the rifle, Mari," the European girl interjected, turning back to her side and snatching the compact bullpup from its cushioned inset. The _Type MM-99 Evangelion Large Caliber Assault Rifle—_ to use its full designation—wasn't necessarily the deadliest weapon in Nerv's arsenal, but it was reliable, extremely easy to use, and had the greatest ammo capacity of anything available to her, which made it a pretty good choice for fighting in an abnormal environment like the open seas.

 _"_ _Eh, sure. Worst comes to worst, I can just ditch it and grab something nastier."_

In her Eva's peripheral vision, Asuka saw Unit 08 shrug its shoulders, and grab a rifle as well.

 _"_ _Mari,"_ Misato said over the intercom. _"Do I have to remind you that we_ don't _have a massive number of weapons available at the moment, so-"_

 _"_ _Yeah, yeah,"_ the Fourth Child interrupted. _"Ditch the gun on a ship or something, not the ocean. I'm_ weird _, not_ stupid _.."_

The slate blue Evangelion made a creaking noise like a sigh, and plodded over towards Unit 02.

 _"_ _So what now, Princess?"_

"Simple," Asuka answered, flipping off her weapon's safety. "There should still be a bit of time before the Nemesis Series shows up. We can just-"

Before she finished, the roar of an explosion cut in, drowning her out with its sheer volume. A shockwave crashed into the supercarrier's hull, nearly jolting Unit 02 off its feet as the ship rocked back without warning. Asuka slammed a boot into the deck, her head swinging up instinctively. Out near the front of the fleet, a plume of red water rose from the ocean's surface, consuming an errant destroyer boat in its blast.

Rising out of the epicentre was a massive cross of pinkish-white energy, its top crowned with rings of red and white that suggested an eye. The cross hung there, crackling and fizzing against the air.

In her Entry Plug, Asuka could hear snippets of sentences from the intercom, as technicians and personnel in the command centre read out their instruments.

 _"_ _-minor damage to_ Rainbow _and the others, but we've lost the-"_

 _"_ _Pattern Teal has been re-established! They've dropped their cloaking cocoon!"_

 _"_ _-recognised two—no, three signatures!"_

Whatever the case, it was obvious that the predictions had been wrong—that the Nemesis units had closed in faster than expected. There was no time left to prepare.

 _They're here_ , she thought.

.

[-]

As the glowing cross flickered out, a high-pitched shriek rang out from the depths of the vapour cloud.

 _"_ _Asuka! Mari!"_ Misato yelled, snapping the girl out of her trance. The Second Child bared her teeth, quashing the shock she'd shown at the display of strength. A momentary flash of disgust crossed her mind as well, repulsed by the way these _things_ had made her feel.

 _"_ _All ships, open fire!"_

Moments later, a hundred different turrets and missile cells discharged, unleashing a wave of projectiles into the middle of the cloud. It was more than enough firepower to reduce a city to ash and rubble…

And not a single one hit their target. A shimmering, iridescent wall of hexagonal barriers sprang up with a bell-like chime within the cloud, absorbing each and every burst of fire and shrapnel that landed against it. An Absolute Terror Field—the metaphysical barrier that made Evangelions and Angels almost invincible to anything short of each-other. Without another field to cancel it out, or something that could output enough energy to penetrate it, an AT Field would render any weapon useless against the one projecting it.

Fortunately, Units 02 and 08 were more than capable of doing _just that_.

Unburdened by the barrage, three churning shapes emerged from the cloud, travelling just under the surface of the water.

"Mari, get ready!" Asuka yelled, as the trio of Nemesis units swam towards the supercarrier, drawn by the Evangelions' own AT Fields. Closer and closer they came, relentlessly approaching as the roar of cannon fire petered off.

 _Come on, you bastards…_

Another unearthly scream split the air, as the lead unit erupted from the water.

At times, Asuka forgot just how utterly _bizarre_ the Nemesis Series looked—and fighting them only served to hammer in that impression. The unit's main body consisted of a massive disc covered in black metal, with an octagonal protrusion on both its dorsal and ventral surfaces, surrounded by a ring of thirty two red orbs. Eight ribbon-like tentacles sprouted from either protrusion, gleaming white on one side, and dull black on the other. The only thing to hint that this mess of flesh and metal was remotely related to her Unit 02 were the rectangular shoulder pylons—all sixty four of them, mounted along the rim of the synthetic weapon in the same configuration as the orbs.

"Now!" the Second and Fourth Children yelled simultaneously, their mismatched tones of aggression and enthusiasm mingling oddly. Asuka _slammed_ Unit 02's AT Field into the Code 04c's own, before swinging her assault rifle up and yanking the trigger back. The muzzle flashed, spraying out battleship-worthy shells at several hundred rounds a minute. This close, the Nemesis Series unit was an easy target, and a number of shots managed to land—ricocheting and leaving pocks in the armour plating—before the Nemesis unit retaliated, lashing out with a few of its upper ribbons.

Instinctively, Asuka jumped, sending her Eva leaping over to a nearby ship before the limbs struck. The cyborg's feet crashed into the vessel's deck unsteadily, forcing the girl to grab onto a nearby gun turret to halt her momentum. Across from her, the Code 04c shrieked again, its tentacles having been deflected upwards and away from the ship by Unit 08's AT Field.

Baring her teeth, Asuka tensed her legs, and sprung again—using the height of her jump to pelt the top of the monster's disc-shaped body with bullets. The Nemesis unit pulled away from the ship, its lower tendrils churning the waters as they held it up. Its limbs flailed, swatting bullets out of the air as

Suddenly, another set of ribbons erupted out of the sea, shooting out with lightning speed. Unable to dodge while still in the air, Asuka pulled back her AT Field as fast as she could—just before the tentacles struck, knocking the Eva from the sky. In the back of her mind, Asuka could hear Mari shout her name. Unit 02 slammed into the _Rainbow's_ deck, rolling back along the length of the ship until it hit a raised portion near the back. Asuka grunted in discomfort, and shoved the controls forwards, impelling Unit 02 to stand back up.

"J-just a crash, nothing's broken…" the girl muttered to herself. The power cable seemed still intact as well, given that no five minute timer had appeared in her heads up display.

However, now there was _another_ problem; a second Nemesis unit—probably the one that had hit her—had surfaced, the air shimmering around it like a heat haze from the thing's AT Field. Shells from the surrounding ships detonated uselessly against the barrier, as the Code 04c and its sibling pushed onto the offensive, slashing at the slate blue Unit 08 with their tentacles. The Evangelion had discarded its rifle, focusing her Field against each blow just barely in time to deflect them. It didn't look very good for the Fourth Child, even if she was managing to hold out.

 _"_ _Shit!_ " Asuka cursed. "Mari!"

 _"_ _Gah!"_ the other girl yelped, as one solid blow sent the blue Eva stumbling back a step. Before the other Code 04c could strike, however, Asuka flung her arm up, frantically throwing her Eva's AT Field against the monster—just as a cluster of missiles soared in. Unprepared for the loss of its defense, the Nemesis unit froze up, before the warheads impacted, their detonation sending it crashing sideways into its sibling. Unit 08 looked up in surprise, before its head darted over to Asuka.

 _"_ _P-Princess?"_

"Idiot! Now, while they're stunned!" Asuka yelled, charging forwards to the front position again. She didn't have her gun anymore—there was no time to get it, anyway—but they needed to take this opportunity, before it was gone. With just a thought, Unit 02's shoulder pylons snapped open, unfolding in an instant to expose a pair of knives. Asuka reached up to grab them, unlocking the blades from their holsters and swinging them back to her side. "Take the one on the left!"

And with that, Unit 02 pounced, its power cable trailing behind it like a tail.

The Eva rammed its feet into the rightmost cyborg, momentum carrying both Unit 02 and the several hundred metre-wide NS unit down towards the ocean. The Code 04c's tentacles thrashed, throwing up a spray of frothy red water around them. Asuka screamed at it, as she reversed her grip on one of the knives and plunged it into the monster's dorsal surface. The rapidly oscillating blade punched straight through the armour, eliciting an alien scream from the Code 04c as dark red blood gushed from the wound. Without reprieve, the girl struck again, carving another bloody rent through the metal. Her right hand let go of the first blade, wrapping Unit 02's armoured fingers around one of the pylons on her foe's rim to steady herself. Still shrieking and thrashing, the Nemesis Series struck out with its tendrils, hammering several blows against the Evangelion's helmet and back—but this close to their base, the supple limbs couldn't build up enough momentum, reducing the strikes to muted smacks. However, one smashed down directly into the small of her back, crushing the plug for her Eva's power cable. Safety mechanisms activated, and the ruined mechanism blew off, falling away as a holographic timer appeared on the girl's right, counting down from five minutes.

 _Dammit!_

Undeterred, Asuka pulled hard, hoisting the crimson cyborg onto the top of the armoured disk—and just in time. The NS unit's AT Field whined, before a rippling sheath of air pulled the bizarre entity fully upright once more. One of its lower tendrils whipped out of the water, its tip splitting into a rough imitation of a five-fingered hand that grabbed furiously at Unit 02. The girl let out a cry of surprise, dodging to the left before the ribbon-fingers snapped shut. As the tentacle drew away, anger sparked in the Second Child's eye.

"Hey, you _jerk_ , that was _close!"_ Asuka snapped at it, lips drawing back into a snarl. Admittedly, the Nemesis Series _was_ their enemy, but that didn't mean that the fiery-haired pilot couldn't be pissed off at it for its actions. Glaring down at the disk below her, Asuka ripped out one of the bloody knives left in its flesh, dark red blood vaporising off the blade's superheated edge as soon as it touched the air. Now armed once more, the girl spun to her left and lunged, grabbing a pair of tentacles with her off hand. In an instant, Asuka swung low, slicing off both tendrils at the base in a single blow.

The other tendrils spasmed, frantically whirling about through the air as the Second Child reversed her grip—and struck to the right, driving the knife through one of the glassy orbs embedded in the black metal. The Code 04c seized up instantly, its limbs freezing at sharp angles for a couple of seconds—for the crystalline spheroid had been one of its Cores.

Another thing that brought the Nemesis Series closer to Angels was their internal structure. Unlike standard Evangelions, the NS units lacked almost all conventional internal organs; they had no respiratory system, no stomach, and no viscera—nothing except a high-pressure circulatory system, a fairly basic nervous array, and their Cores. Even then, a Code 04 wouldn't die with the destruction of the first two organs. As long as an Angel or Nemesis Series had its Cores intact, they could eventually heal any wound. To kill one, you _had_ to destroy the Cores.

And that was _just_ what Asuka was going to do.

The Second Child let loose on the Code 04c, striking at Cores with both her knives and Unit 02's armoured feet as fast as she could in the time before it recovered its wits.

 _One! Two! Three!_ Asuka counted out, as glassy spheres cracked and broke under the sheer strength of the Evangelion. On her right side, the countdown continued, nearing three and a half minutes. Should it reach zero, the girl knew that Unit 02's internal power cells would have dropped to ten percent charge, and the Evangelion would automatically switch to power-saving mode, effectively crippling her combat ability until she could recharge. She'd have to finish this one off quickly.

As the Nemesis unit quivered and shuddered, Asuka spared a momentary glance around her. The Pacific Fleet was mobilizing into combat formation as fast as they safely could, missiles and turret fire streaking across the sky. Some of these smashed down into the ocean, where a churning trail of water marked the third enemy unit—clearly kept down by the suppressive fire—while the remaining shots were aimed at the other, closer Code 04c to keep it occupied, while Mari took it apart.

Unit 08 leaped around the monster, hopping from ship to ship much how Asuka had. The Eva held an assault rifle in either hand, alternating between them to keep up a steady rhythm of fire as she tore regular holes in her foe's AT Field. Multiple pylons had been blown off, and several of its tentacles had bullet holes in them, but the Nemesis unit was still clearly operational—and very dangerous, given the smoke trailing from the nearby vessels.

Asuka had an idea.

"Mari! Get ready, I'm coming over!" the girl shouted over the intercom, grabbing hold of another bunch of tentacles. Her communications window popped open, bringing Mari's focused—and slightly maniacal—face into view. The bespectacled girl glanced over, and blinked a few times curiously.

 _"_ _Huh? Princess? What are you…?"_

The Fourth Child's question was promptly cut off, as Unit 02 _yanked_. Badly damaged by her efforts, the NS unit had no way of rectifying itself from the sudden jolt off its centre of balance—and promptly careened sideways, where it collided with its teammate in a clatter of metal and flesh. The girl's grip broke under the shock, and the crimson Eva fell backward, only caught by the fence of pylons.

"Ah!" she cried reflexively, as her Eva crashed into the wall of fins, throwing her against the back of the piloting throne. Asuka hissed, and winced as she pulled her body back upright towards the hologram. "M-Mari! Now! The Cores—shoot them!"

 _"_ _I- right!"_

There was a thump as Unit 08 leaped on top of a Nemesis Series unit, before the roar of gunfire split the air again. Not to be left behind, Asuka shoved herself forwards, and smashed Unit 02's foot down on a Core. She'd dropped her knives in the collision, but that didn't matter—these things _just had to die_.

Blood bubbled out of the dying Nemesis units, as the Second and Fourth Children shot, stomped, and tore them to pieces, bit by gruesome bit.

 _Just a bit more. Just a little bit more, and-_

Asuka didn't get to finish that thought. Something appeared on the edge of her vision—flickering red and white and pink for a split second. Then the walls of the Entry Plug flashed white, and a terrible shriek drowned out everything else.

The next instant, a thousand spikes of fire tore into Asuka's flesh, metal shattering about her like balsa wood and broken glass. The girl doubled over in the seat, nearly curling into a ball as she clutched her chest. No amount of training could have prepared her for the agony that had surged through her body—as if a set of superheated, steel claws had been driven into her front, and carved a rent across her ribcage as the rest of her burned. But that wasn't even the worst of it. Asuka felt _raw_ and _exposed_ , like more than just the physical her had been hurt.

Sickeningly, the copper-tinted smell of cooked meat reached Asuka's awareness through the haze of pain—Unit 02's flesh, seared and blackened under its armour. The girl managed to uncurl a tiny amount, her right eye stuttering up towards the front of the Entry Plug. The cylinder's walls flickered, little patches fizzling out in static. A short ways away, another pink cross had exploded out of the water, staring down at her with its baleful red 'eye'.

An Anti-AT Field blast. That was… what had hit her. The pink cross—that's why they were so dangerous. All Nemesis Series variants on Nerv's record had the potential to make one, for a short period of time, and the last one must have hit her with it at point blank range. Even without the actual detonation, it was instantly lethal to normal, unprotected lifeforms… and agonisingly painful to anything like an Evangelion.

Absentmindedly, Asuka realized that her left arm was the only part of her that didn't hurt. Slowly, she looked to the left.

 _O-oh,_ thought the small, subconscious part of her that was still able to think through the pain somewhat. _T-that's… why…_

Where Unit 02's prosthetic arm had been, a melted stump of metal that had once been a joint poked out sadly from the Eva's shoulder.

Then something swung down, and slammed into Unit 02's stomach with a sickening _crack_. Asuka doubled over again, the pain that had unconsciously dulled itself spiking back to full force. An alarm went off in the Plug, whining insistently as muted voices started to shout over the intercom... not that Asuka knew what they were saying. Slowly, the ribbon-like tendril pulled itself out, scraps of armour and flesh falling from its tip.

Another tentacle crashed down on the deck next to her… and another, and another. The final one of the three Nemesis Series units loomed above her, completely unharmed, and quivering with alien malice. Along its underside, the Code 04c's thirty two Cores pulsed in harmony, building up the energy for another Anti-AT Field blast. It didn't matter that Unit 02 had survived one—in its state, the Eva wouldn't stand a chance against a second point blank discharge… nor would Asuka. With how much everything _hurt_ , she had no chance of evading it, either. This was it.

This was going to be what killed her.

 _D-don't… wanna d-die…_ A part of Asuka whimpered, as the lights flickered and shimmered. _I-I… don't w-wanna die…_

And then a slate blue Evangelion slammed into the side of the Nemesis unit.

 _"_ _Die, you_ fucker!" Mari screamed, her voice carried over an open channel.

Unit 08 let out a muffled howl, mirroring its pilot's fury as it tore chunks out of the larger cyborg's hull. The Code 04c's Cores sparked and flashed, still trying to charge another shot—only for the Evangelion to yank something from its shoulder pylon, and blow the nearest orb to pieces. Instantly, a gout of fire burst out of the NS unit's side, several other Cores detonating as the destabilized Anti-AT Field cascaded through its body.

 _"_ _Stupid, ugly, son of a bitch! Fuck you! Fuck you!_ Fuck you!"

"…M-Mari?" Asuka whispered faintly, as she leaned a little bit forwards. In response, another jolt of pain stabbed into her stomach, breaking the Second Child's momentary focus. Asuka yelped, and reflexively retreated, shrinking back into herself once more.

 _C-can't take it… can't, can't, can't, no…_

Shakily, the girl's left arm reached out, and pressed her fingers to a floating hologram.

Instantly, the Plug walls shut off with a descending whine. Outside, Unit 02's limbs slackened and went limp, as the Eva's batteries dropped into power-saving mode prematurely.

Slowly, the tension and hurt bled from Asuka's body, as she felt her synchronization with the cyborg dropping. The pain of Unit 02's injuries had faded away like smoke as she'd withdrawn, but her connection hadn't fully broken—not enough that she'd lost the warm, comforting presence of the Evangelion. The only pain left was that which _didn't_ come from Eva. The pain of the Anti-AT Field. The rawness.

But compared to everything before—the agony, the exhaustion, the overwhelming terror of the Nemesis Series bearing down on her—she could stand it.

.

A little while later, a pair of muffled thumps reverberated through the Entry Plug, drawing Asuka's attention. The girl's one, reddened eye glanced up, curious of the source.

"U-unit 02…" she murmured. "Camera feed."

The screens flickered on.

Unit 08 stood there, crouching down next to her Evangelion.

 _Mari._

The blue Eva had clearly been fighting messily, from the scars she could see. Its armoured body was scored and cracked in places, dark red stains caked most of its lower arms, and one glowing eye was flickering unsteadily. However, it didn't seem impaired in the slightest, its movements betraying no signs of fatigue.

An intercom window popped open in Asuka's view, displaying the Fourth Child's worried expression. At the sight of her, Mari's face lit up, clearly relieved that her teammate was still alive—if not completely well.

 _"_ _Asuka!"_

Joyfully, Unit 08 reached out, and scooped the red Eva up in its arms, lifting Unit 02 off the ground as gently as a several-thousand-ton armoured cyborg could manage.

The strawberry blonde sighed at the other girl's enthusiasm, the tiniest hint of a smile dancing across her lips.

"W-worrying about me _again?_ " She asked. Mari just swallowed, and nodded in affirmation.

"…Y-you idiot," Asuka muttered, though her words lacked any demeaning tone to them. "Reckless, four-eyed idiot…"

The brunette shrugged nonchalantly at the comment, clearly far too glad to focus on the Second Child's 'insult'.

 _"_ _Well… I'm not going to just let you die, Princess,"_ Mari replied. _"Not on my watch."_

.

"And the… Nemesis Series?" Asuka asked, glancing away from the coms window. "W-what's happened with them?"

 _"_ _First two were dead meat when number three took its cheap shot,"_ the other girl said. _"The last one… me and Unit 08 took care of it. They're all gone."_

Another sigh of relief came from the Second Child, as she slumped back in her seat. In the corner of her vision, she saw Mari offer her a smile.

 _"_ _Princess? I'm starting to run low on power now. You ready to go?"_

 _Go. Back to the_ Rainbow _. Back to the hanger, and the room, and the view—and away from the Nemesis Series._

No question.

Asuka glanced back over to Mari. Her head nodded.

"Yeah," she answered softly.

Slowly, Unit 08 turned rightwards, taking care not to jolt the Eva in its arms too much, or put undue stress on the already damaged ship. The _Over the Rainbow_ was a few vessels away—a distance the slate blue cyborg was more than capable of crossing, even with its injured passenger.

The Eva's foot swung out, taking the first step forwards.

 _"_ _Then let's go home."_

.


	3. White Knuckles

**Evangelion: Regenesis**

 _Chapter Three – White Knuckles_

.

A retching, coughing noise rang out, echoing off the hanger walls. The sound trailed off after a few seconds, before Asuka sucked in a wet breath, and smacked herself in the ribs a couple more times—bringing on another, thankfully weaker bout of coughs.

The Second Child stood—or rather, leaned—against the railing of the central walkway, head stuck out over the side, and both hands squeezing the rail in a death grip.

 _I… h-_ hate _liquid breathing,_ came the murky thought, as a thin spurt of copper-scented LCL dripped from her lips. The sticky, red liquid clung to her like blood—coating her face, her hair, her plugsuit, even the inside of her lungs. Getting the stuff off was never a particularly fun ordeal for the girl, especially that which she'd been breathing, but the rawness from her exposure to the Nemesis Series' attack had left the process feeling a _lot_ worse than usual.

"F- _fuck_ ," the blonde muttered shakily, her limbs still quivering as she pushed herself upright. For a while, she just stood there, breathing in and out as the last of the LCL left her lungs. Behind her, a hand gently settled on her left shoulder.

"…Feel better?" Mari asked.

 _Like someone cleaned out my throat with pumice_ , Asuka wanted to reply. Indeed, she might have—had she not been tempered by the years after Impact, or recently stripped of her defenses by Seele's monsters. Or if she hadn't been retching up Evangelion blood half a minute before. So instead, she simply shrugged a little.

"K-kinda," the girl replied. Mari sighed audibly, and gave Asuka's shoulder a little squeeze.

"Look, how about we go and… get ourselves cleaned off?" She offered. "The water's probably still nice and hot…"

 _A… a shower?_ The Second Child thought. Actually, that sounded pretty nice to her; the opportunity to just stand there, by herself, letting the warmth of the water relax her muscles and wash away the LCL—no interruptions, no fighting, and _no danger_.

Yes… yes, she wanted that. In some ways, she _needed_ it. Slowly, unsteadily, the eighteen year old pilot turned leftwards to face Mari, as she kept one hand firmly on the railing.

"I t-think I'd l-like that," she replied, the _damned_ stutter still refusing to leave her voice. "Y-you go first."

Obediently, the other girl nodded, and retracted her hand.

"Right. Let's go then, Princess."

As the brunette began to mosey down the central walkway, Asuka finally released her grip on the rail, and immediately folded her arms tightly across her chest. Slowly, her legs worked, the girl starting to follow along. She didn't speed up, or demand that the Fourth Child slow down—just followed her.

The actual journey was practically just muscle memory for her, and couldn't have taken more than two minutes. Asuka hadn't bothered paying attention to how long it had been, or really _cared_ about it in the first place—so what signalled her was the clack of the door opening. As the girl looked up, she noted Mari leaning against the door, holding it to let her in first.

With a mental shrug, Asuka walked in.

Her clothes were snatched up off the bench, and dropped with equal lack of care as Asuka walked over to where the showers were located. For a second, she stepped around the barrier, just to turn on the nearest valve, before darting out again as the water started to flow. Her A-10 clips were removed—set down on top of the barrier for her to rinse off soon—and then Asuka's hand dropped down, and encircled her wrist. With a hiss, the plugsuit depressurised, no longer skin-tight, but still suctioned against her frame.

Contrary to what most believed, stripping out of a plugsuit tended to be inelegant at best, and not erotic in the _slightest_. Asuka peeled the suit off like it was a second skin—an unfinished dragonfly, pulling herself free from the damp remains of her carapace. At first, the garment came away slowly and stickily in her hands, until she finally broke through the vacuum seal, and caused the remaining fabric to release, and simply drop to the floor. She didn't bother with anything further, save a kick to push it away; the ship had staff to deal with it, and the girl was drained.

…Unfortunately, to get the relief she'd desired, Asuka couldn't just rush her shower the same way she'd donned and discarded her plugsuit. To soak in the warmth, to bleed out the rawness and the tension… she had to look. She had to look—at herself, and what had been left from _that day_. It was unavoidable.

As she stepped into the curtain of water, a sigh of defeat escaped the girl's lips.

 _No matter what I do, it_ always _comes back to me._

.

During the first six months after Impact, the severity of the injuries accumulated from Unit 01 and the Ninth Angel had left Asuka comatose, and forced her to undergo intense reconstructive surgery. Naturally, with their limited resources, Nerv's medical practitioners had been more concerned with getting her intact and functional than being seamless in their work. She didn't regret that—not when it meant that she was still able to pilot, and didn't have to spend her days hooked up to life support. Not when it meant she was still _alive_. But even so, with the way she was…

The parts of her that'd been affected were _obvious_ to anyone who could have seen them. The eyepatch. The thin white lines of scar tissue, marking where things had been taken out and replaced. Patches of unnaturally pale, too-smooth flesh, brought in when the vat-grown tissue had run out. A band of black textile, sewn into her upper thigh and shimmering with hundreds of tiny glyphs. Her right arm, where only a few small sections retained their natural skin tone. And that was just _outside_. It didn't take into account the superconductive fibres spliced into her spinal column where a piece of shrapnel had severed the nerves—or the titanium-ceramic composite reinforcing her bones—or the LCL-based gel replacements for the cushioning pads in her joints—or anything else.

For most, it would have been an incredible feat of medicine—but for Asuka, it was just a reminder of the day her world had broken apart, and taken her with it. Her last, grandest failure; infected and mutilated by a damned _Angel._

 _Crack._

A jolt of pain shot through the girl's hand, which shook her out of her downwards spiral and back to the real world. For a few seconds, Asuka just stared, her synthetic fist driven into the wall with enough force to fracture the ceramics. Then her posture slouched, and the girl slumped back, leaning wordlessly against the barrier behind her.

 _…_ _Stop it,_ she thought, as the pain faded to a dull ache.

 _Stop thinking about it. It's just the Field..._

Asuka lifted her arm from her side, and reached for the washcloth, in hopes of at least getting herself cleaned off. She paused, halfway there. Along the top of her knuckles, a few specks of red had started to well up, before the shower washed them away. The Second Child gave a distressed groan at the sight.

"…Dammit."

.

[-]

.

It was a little after the showers that Asuka had found herself met by Misato and a team of medics, and escorted down to the medical centre for examination. As an Eva Pilot, she'd had the _pleasure_ of having Nerv's top metaphysical biologist—a woman who, despite her expertise in her field, hadn't shifted from her rank as 'that amoral bitch' in Asuka's mind since day one—weigh in on the matter alongside the other doctor.

At the very least, she'd gotten a competent diagnoses out of it.

 _Physically_ , Asuka hadn't been hurt that badly. At the most, she'd suffered a few bruises and bumps in the plug, and messed up her hand for a few days. The real issue was actually metaphysical in nature. An Evangelion could save its pilot from the fatal nature of the Anti-AT Field, and prevent their physical body from breaking down into soup—but that still left enough power in the Field to affect a person's soul to some degree, if only temporarily.

To put it simply, until her ego barrier could regenerate itself, Asuka's metaphysical barriers would be far more fragile than normal, _especially_ when other people were close by. That meant distress, feelings of vulnerability, and the exacerbation of any sort of psychological or emotional issues she had. Unfortunately, the only treatment that the doctor had on hand—besides syncing with an Evangelion, so the cyborg's AT Field could buffer her own—was to 'wait and relax', to let the damage heal on its own with as little interference by others as possible. And, since Unit 02's repairs had been due to begin soon, synchronisation therapy hadn't been an option.

Therefore, it was no surprise that the girl hated it.

.

Asuka spent the rest of the day under remote observation in the pilots' ward—a special room separate from the rest of the wards, made exclusively for those with the ability to pilot Eva. It was a lot less enjoyable. For one, sitting alone in an enclosed room, with a forest of unblinking scanners staring down at her from above, was far from the most relaxing way she could have spent an afternoon—especially when she'd moved, and _seen_ them follow her. Even when she had focused on something else, the girl's subconscious had been unable to completely let her guard down.

Dinner had been… alright, she'd supposed. Since they hadn't stopped at a port recently and Asuka wasn't exactly the picture of health, the autonomously-delivered meal was just what the ship's flash-growth galley and storage usually churned out, with even fewer frills than normal; a zooplankton-based meat patty, algae mash, and some crackers. Basic, but satisfactory, aside from the annoyance of being unable to use her right hand to eat it.

After that, she'd tidied up the tray a little, dropped it back in its delivery slot, and sat back down in her cot. Unfortunately, there was as little for her to do as there had been the last time she'd been there. The fact was that the pilot's ward was still very much a bare-bones place, due to Nerv's much smaller budget forcing them to compromise on things like aesthetics or comfort, resulting in there being little difference between the private ward and the general one besides size.

Eventually, however, lights out had finally come—and with it, the nightmares.

 _Her. Unit 03. The Angel. The hands. Hundreds and hundreds of burning hands, scalding her flesh in their grips. That cruel, childish grin, attached to a body with no face. Laughing. Laughing at her. Red and blue. Laughing at her 03 Angel._

 _The Eva. The Eva the Eva the Eva._

 _Her hands 03's hands Angel's hands, around the Eva's throat. Her teeth 03's teeth Angel's teeth, bared in a furious smile. Blood, pouring out as the Eva ripped her body 03's body Angel's body apart._

 _Red and blue._

It'd been far too early when she'd woken, just like last time—except Mari hadn't been there. Nobody had been there. Even the forest of eyes had seemed vacant then, their sensors frozen in place, even when she'd moved to check. She was alone.

So she'd climbed back in, pulled the blankets up over her body, and held herself as tightly as she could until the sun came up.

Much to her relief, the next day turned out much, much better.

.

[-]

Since dinner had come by automated transfer, Asuka figured that breakfast would do the same. Needless to say, it didn't. The European girl was still staring at the delivery slot, wondering when Nerv would send her meal over, when the ward's door slid open.

"Hey, Princess."

Asuka's focus snapped over, the voice having grabbed her attention immediately. Mari stood in the doorframe, a tray of food in her hands and a sheepish look on her face. At the sight of Asuka's face, the brunette sighed softly.

"Sorry I wasn't here yesterday," she said. "I got dragged off to guard duty, in case more of Seele's toys showed up. Lousy job, but they probably weren't gonna let me in anyways. Not _yesterday_ , at least."

"…I got food, though," the girl offered, lifting up the tray for emphasis. As if taking note, Asuka's stomach grumbled. A crack appeared in the Second Child's composure.

Mari just smiled apologetically. The brunette circled around, and kept a little distance from Asuka as she set the tray down at the foot of the bed. Freed of the meal, the Fourth Child moved over to the adjacent cot and sat down. A little cautiously, Asuka grabbed the tray, and pulled it up to her lap, her eye flicking between Mari and the food.

"Thanks, Mari," she whispered, before she grabbed a spork, and hungrily shovelled down a mouthful of food. The blonde wasn't actually as hungry as she seemed—it was more to keep herself occupied than anything else. _But of course,_ _Mari would know that_ , she thought to herself.

As she ate, the other girl sat patiently on the cot, her eyes focused intently on Asuka. Mari's expression was hard to figure out… but at least she wasn't bombarding her with questions or anything like that.

.

"So," the brunette finally offered, as Asuka finished another sporkful. "How's solitary been? Bad as it was the first time?"

Asuka huffed.

"Worse. At least I had _distractions_ then," came her answer. "This time, I just…" The girl drew a deep breath, and snorted in frustration. "I'm feeling like _crap_ , and they lock me in a _confined space_ with a bunch of fucking _cameras_ as company and _nothing_ to do?!"

Mari frowned.

"They did what?"

"I just _said_ ," Asuka replied. "Look, do you see _anything_ here that isn't just basic medical equipment? Any sort of thing for me to do besides stew in my own thoughts here? No—there's _nothing_. 'Wait and relax' my _ass_ ," she muttered, as she set down her utensil. "More like 'sit around and stew for a couple days'."

"Okay, _really?!"_

Asuka turned, drawn by the aggressive exclamation. Mari grimaced, one of her hands rubbing her forehead in irritation.

"That is… that's it. I am done. Done, done, done," the girl grumbled, before she looked back up at Asuka. "I'm kinda pissed off now, Princess."

"…Mari?"

"I am _kinda_ pissed off," the Fourth Child continued, with no heed for her roommate's comment. A small part of Asuka noticed that the girl had switched from English to Japanese for some reason. "Because… would it _really_ have been an issue for doc to just call me up and say 'hey Mari, just so you know, we've gone and put the Second Child in solitary. Do you think I should give her something to distract her, or just watch like an apathetic quack?' No, it _wouldn't_. But she _didn't_." Mari paused, and glanced to the sensor cluster. "And now that I'm pretty much on guard duty for a while, I'm gonna be stupidly _busy_ most of the time."

The brunette sighed, and finally looked back to Asuka.

"So… I'm gonna get you some music—how about that, Asuka?"

"…Wait, you-?"

"I can't do anything else," Mari interrupted. "I can't visit you all the time, whenever I want to. I can't wake you up if you're having nightmares. I can't be there like I… normally am. But I can get you something to listen to, at least." The girl's lips twitched, and rose into a little smile for a moment.

For a few seconds, Asuka stared—a little confused, and uncertain of what had just happened.

"Mari?" She said warily. "…You're being kinda weird again."

The other girl just smiled, as if amused by Asuka's comment—though that wouldn't be a surprise, given what Asuka knew of her. Then, the brunette rocked forwards, and stood up.

"Right! Now, Princess, stay there," Mari said, and pointed to the blonde's bed. "Because I will be _right_ back—soon as I can!" Quickly, the girl strode over to the exit. "And if I… well, _when_ I can, I will _keep_ on coming back-" A few centimetres from the door, Mari paused abruptly, and whirled around for a moment. "Oh, and the tray's nothing special; feel free to just dump it in the usual slot when you're done or whatever. _Ciao!"_

With that, the brunette turned back to the exit, one eye still glancing behind her, and walked out. The door slid shut.

.

Asuka sighed, and rubbed her head.

 _…_ _Well, I've got something to occupy my mind_ now _,_ the girl thought. _Figuring out what the hell_ that _just was._

.

[-]

It was a few days later when Asuka was finally cleared for duty again.

Despite the curiousness of her visit, Mari had made good on her promise, and come back a little later with what Asuka had recognised as the girl's compact disc player. It was one of the few possessions that Mari had recovered following Third Impact—but the Brit seemed more than willing to offer it up for the remainder of Asuka's stay, along with a couple of discs to listen to. Some of the song choices were a little… odd, but that didn't mean she wasn't glad to have the music around. It gave her something to do—something to focus on during her long stay.

As for Mari herself? Well, the girl had shown up a couple more times, just to check on her. The visits hadn't been long, but they _had_ been enough to reassure her while she recovered. All in all, Asuka felt—while not _completely_ okay again—a lot better than she had at first.

.

Now, Asuka found herself called back to Misato's office, for reasons she wasn't sure of.

"So…" she asked. "Is this supposed to just be another check-up, or did you have a _different_ reason why you'd wanted me here?"

"Option two," the woman sighed, as she leaned back in her chair. "Rits gave me the full report already."

"Well," Asuka said. "In _that_ case, you know that I'm _not_ amused by what-"

"I know!" Misato interrupted. "…I know. I've already gotten _plenty_ of complaints from Makinami on Ritsuko's methods. You _don't_ need to keep on telling me."

The Second Child slouched in her chair, rendered quiet once more by the woman's interjection.

"…Now," the Colonel started again. "As I was _saying_ ; after… recent events, I've made a decision regarding you and Eva Unit 02." She looked up, and focused on the girl. "You've been moved to backup duty."

"I… I've _what?"_ Asuka demanded, as she jerked back upright. "Backup?!"

"Yes, _backup,"_ came Misato's reply. "Unit 02's arm is still far from repaired, and—well, to be honest, if it weren't for the fact that we need every able-bodied combatant available and ready, I sure as hell wouldn't have cleared you for action yet."

"I- but I'm one of the only two Eva Pilots _in_ this damn fleet! I'm one of the only two who can actually _fight_ Seele's units!" She protested. "If I get sidelined, what do you think's going to happen to Mari next time? She and Unit 08 will get _butchered_ if I'm not in there!"

Almost regretfully, the dark-haired woman sighed, and broke eye contact with the girl.

"…Not anymore," she said.

"What?" the Second Child demanded. Misato leaned back.

"While you were… out of commission, we made contact with First Branch again," she explained. "They've finished their tests on Evangelion Unit 07 and the improved power supply. In a couple of days, it and its pilot are going to be flown over to the fleet."

 _New Eva…_ Asuka thought. A new, horrible possibility churned in her mind, growing worse with each moment. _A new Eva and a new pilot… and I'm stuck on the sidelines…_

 _Am… am I being replaced?_

No.

No, that couldn't be it. Not that. Anything but that. The nightmares, she could deal with. The hurt, she could deal with. She could deal with the fear, the hate, the curses, the ruin… and with _every_ other awful thing that had come from the Impacts…

But not this. Not being replaced, or cast out of the _one_ thing she'd dedicated her _life_ to doing. _That_ wasn't… wasn't…

Her next breath was slow, and shaky, and laced with the tangled mess of emotion inside her.

 _No. Nonono, no crying. Can't cry,_ she thought frantically. _…Not in front of her. I can't… give her a reason._

The possibility of it being something else didn't matter—Asuka didn't want to risk it. She _couldn't_ risk it. Not for something like this.

"Now, I was… actually hoping that you might-"

"How dare you," Asuka hissed under her breath. Caught off guard, Misato came to a halt, forced to abandon her sentence.

"…Asuka?" The woman asked. The Second Child looked up, and choked back the knot of despair that had risen in her throat.

"I said… h-how _dare_ you?" She repeated, snarling the last words out. The girl stood up abruptly, and immediately whirled around towards the door.

"Goodbye, _Colonel."_

"Wait, Asu-"

Asuka didn't wait for Misato's reply—she just wanted to go. As soon as she'd gotten out, the girl simply took off, ignoring the shouts of the woman she'd left behind, until she couldn't hear them anymore—only the panicked repetition in her head. _I don't want to be replaced. I don't want to be replaced. I don't want to be replaced…_

.

Similar as they were, her run through the corridors only seemed to last a minute, before the Second Child found her room again.

The door was flung open carelessly and with too much force, which forced her to catch it a second time. Mari looked down from where she sat on her bed, a mix of surprise and confusion on her face.

"Asuka?"

After her defensive flare-up, the European girl's fury had burnt itself out almost completely—leaving nothing for her to fight with. Now, with everything else spent, the last fragments of her composure finally broke. Asuka felt a shudder run through her body, and slumped forwards with head hung. The snarl on her face contorted, as it became something far more… pained.

A shaky hand reached up, and yanked the eared cap from her head, crumpling the cloth under the pressure of its grip.

 _"_ _T-take_ your… stupid hat!" The girl spat out, before she flung it at the other girl. As Mari yelped in surprise, Asuka headed straight for her bed, and collapsed onto it.

 _I don't want to be replaced._

"…I don't… don't n-need it… anymore."

 _I don't want to be replaced._

Asuka didn't bother trying to explain what she meant. Talking was… wasn't possible for her anymore. The Second Child just curled herself up on the bedsheet, held a pillow against her face, and… cried. After everything else, she had to let all of her frustrations, and fear, and hurt, out—appearances be _damned_.

She didn't scream. She didn't lash out. That wasn't how it worked for Asuka. The girl just lay there, and sobbed, and let her awful mix of emotions slowly seep away.

.

"…Asuka?"

"G-go 'way, Mari," she mumbled back. "Just—go away… for a while."

With that, Asuka withdrew once more, in attempt to block out everything else.

"Alright then," the brunette said at last, speaking just loud enough for Asuka to hear. "Just for now."

The floorboards creaked as Mari stood up—it seemed the girl _wasn't_ lying to Asuka. Then the sound came closer, until they were right beside her. Something soft was set down on the bed, in front of her. Asuka's eye flickered open a crack. Sitting there was the black, eared cap that she'd tossed away.

"But… I think you should keep this," the Fourth whispered. "It suits you more."

With that, the footsteps retreated. A moment later, the door's lock clacked—and that was that.

.

Slowly, one of the girl's hands uncurled from her body. The hand reached out, and stretched cautiously towards the cloth hat—as if she was afraid it'd disappear when she touched it. But, as her fingers brushed against the fabric, the cap remained. Hastily, Asuka pulled it over, and held the simple cap to her chest.

She was still holding it when Mari came back.

.


	4. Gottestoeter

**Evangelion: Regenesis**

 _Chapter Four – Gottestoeter_

.

Asuka had gone to sleep early.

Mari wasn't surprised—based on what she'd seen, the Second Child had gone through quite a lot during the last day; her early release from the ward, the meeting with Misato, and what had seemed like some _nasty_ residual effects from the Anti-AT Field, which had all culminated in her rather abrupt breakdown. After all that, it was no _wonder_ that the European girl needed some reprieve from the rest of the world.

 _Mari_ , on the other hand, had decided to stay up just a little bit later.

"Well, _this_ has been a… day," the girl mused to herself, as she reclined back on the bed. "Could have gone a lot better, too. Less… messed up."

Her gaze slid to the side, tracking across the ceiling and down the wall to the other bed in the room. She'd taken her glasses off already, so everything beyond her nose had turned into an indistinct blur, but the paler shades of Asuka's hair were apparent enough for her to focus on.

"…Oh, Princess," Mari sighed, voice tinged with pity. "What am I to _do_ with you?"

That was the problem, of course; Mari didn't _know_ what she should do. This hadn't been a normal reaction for Asuka—it'd been _bad_. As much as Mari wanted to, she couldn't just grab the girl and hold her until she got better. The world didn't work like that.

 _Why is caring about people so…_ hard? The brunette wondered. _Why is it so hard when I care about_ her?

Asuka was… well, if Mari really wanted to be honest, she'd become a _fixation_ for the Fourth Child. It had all started when she'd realised that she really cared about the girl—not just as a fellow Eva pilot, but _emotionally_ as well. It may not have sounded like such a big deal for a normal person… but Mari _wasn't_ normal. She _liked_ people, sure—people were wonderful—but at the end of the day, most of them just didn't _matter_ to her.

Except for Asuka. _Asuka_ mattered.

Realising that had felt _weird_ , and… kinda nice as well. To find someone who she could worry about, who she wanted to keep safe and happy, who she… well, valued.

Of course she'd choose the most _damaged_ person in the whole damned fleet.

Mari rolled over onto her back again and stared up at the ceiling, as she laid her hands on her belly. Sleep's inexorable tug had been pulling at her for a while now, and Mari had finally started to give in.

"It's okay," she muttered to herself, not really expecting an answer. "It's okay. We'll just figure it out in the morning… won't we, Princess?"

Slowly, the girl's eyes slipped closed. She couldn't do anything else for now—just sleep.

"It'll all be better… then…"

.

[-]

.

When Mari woke up, one of the first things she'd noticed had been that Asuka was still asleep—still a mostly motionless lump under the covers.

 _No nightmares then_ , she thought. _That's a relief._ Of course, the blonde could have been too drained from yesterday to dream—but either way, Mari figured that was a good thing for Asuka. Be it good dreams or no dreams at all, the Second Child deserved _some_ rest, even if it was merely nothingness.

Mari climbed out of bed—softly, so she didn't disturb her roommate too much—and walked over to her dresser. The girl pulled open the drawers one by one, and quickly ran by her possibilities of what she'd wear. Then again, it wasn't like there were many options.

 _Mmm… think I'll go with something a bit nicer,_ she decided. With that, Mari reached in, and pulled out her selection. The school uniform the girl had worn when she'd still lived in Great Britain was an old favourite of hers, not to mention the nicest thing she had to wear—and it still fit her pretty well.

 _Suppose that's_ one _advantage of being an early bloomer,_ Mari noted to herself, as she pulled the blouse on. _If you like what you wore a while ago, it'll probably match you for a while…_ The girl paused, fingers on the second to last button. Recently, it'd started to get a bit too tight when she'd passed that point. Just because she was _mostly_ matured didn't mean she'd stopped, after all.

Mari sighed, and left the button open. It wasn't like she really cared either way.

 _…Even_ if _you have to make a few compromises._

With the same nonchalance, Mari finished donning the rest of her uniform—a plaid skirt, green tie, and her usual dark red stockings, all of which fit far better than the blouse—and took a breath. The Fourth Child shot one last look over at Asuka's bed, just in case the other girl had started to wake up. She hadn't.

"See you in a bit, Princess," the brunette whispered in farewell, before she finally left the room.

.

As the door slid shut behind her, Mari stretched her arms back and yawned. Staying up that late had evidently _not_ been a good idea, especially with how hectic her guard schedule had been recently.

"…Oh well," the Fourth Child sighed. "Time for breakfast." With one last roll of the shoulders, Mari set off down the hall, on her three minute journey to the _Rainbow_ 's galley.

As she strolled along, the girl let her thoughts wander. Granted, there wasn't _much_ she had to think about, but Mari wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop her.

"Okay, but let's try to keep it on something else," she muttered under her breath. _After all, there's more to worry about than just Asuka._

Such as the Angels. It'd been four years since the last one, and while Mari would have been _more_ than happy to never see another damned Angel for the rest of her life, the mystery of just what had happened to them continued to pique her interest. Who knew, maybe Third Impact had put the rest of them into hibernation or something.

 _That'd be something_ , Mari thought as she passed into the galley, and headed towards the line. _Bunch a' sleeping Angels, put back to bed because Unit 01 turned into a god. Hiding at the bottom of the ocean, or deep underground—somewhere out of the way. Heck, it'd just be a matter of finding them, and we could kill the monsters before they even woke up. Avert another Impact_ completely _._

"The usual, Ms. Illustrious?" The galley worker asked, his voice inadvertently snapping Mari out of her internal monologue. The Fourth Child almost immediately perked up, and focused on the young man behind the counter.

"Oh, yes please!" she replied affably. The galley worker nodded, and turned away to fetch her meal. A nice kid, she supposed, even if she didn't remember his name, or much of anything else about him. Just a friendly acquaintance.

"Here you go, miss," the young man said, as he placed a bag, a small container, and a cup of tea on her tray. Mari thanked him, and moved on to the exit point.

Fortunately, there _was_ an empty table available for her to take. Satisfied, Mari set her tray down on one side, and slid in.

 _Now… time to eat,_ she thought as she pulled open the bag. The girl just needed a moment to check its contents, and make sure they were what she'd ordered, before she grabbed them out and flattened the bag into a rudimentary plate for them.

A few seconds later, and Mari had started to sink her teeth into the meal. The girl didn't really bother with manners—she'd chosen an empty table for a reason, after all—but even then, she wasn't a _slob_ , just… unconcerned. It didn't matter if she put her elbows on the table, or ate with her fingers, or whatever.

Although… it really _was_ a pity that she hadn't been able to have a proper breakfast with Asuka again. With the attack of the NS units, it'd been more than a week since she'd tried eating with someone else.

 _…Damn._

"Mari?" someone asked. The Fourth Child glanced over her shoulder, where a purple-haired woman in a turtleneck stood, with a tray in her hands.

"…Yeah?" she replied to Misato.

"Can I take a seat here?"

"Sure, go ahead." The brunette nodded to the other, empty side of the table. "Still got plenty of space left." The older woman exhaled, and walked around to the open bench.

"Thanks," Misato replied, as she started to set out her own meal. Mari shrugged, and returned her focus to the last remaining pieces of her own breakfast.

Despite their initial clashes, over the years Misato Katsuragi had grown quite a bit in Mari's view of her. She was clever, charismatic, and—while not quite a 'mom' figure—essentially the team's well-meaning, alcoholic aunt/big sister with too much shit heaped on her. That, and she didn't have too many inhibitions, just like her. So Mari was more than fine letting the woman sit together with her.

Of _course_ , Misato being nearby _also_ gave her a chance to find some rather _important_ answers…

Mari swallowed the last bite of her breakfast pastry, and licked her lips.

.

"So, Colonel," she began. "Do you want to know what happened with Asuka yesterday?"

The woman paused, and put down her drink.

"…What happened?"

"I'll tell you. She burst into our room, pretty much broke down right in front of me, and started _crying into her pillow,"_ Mari said, her voice getting harder and more aggressive with each event on the list. "And since she'd supposedly _just_ been at a meeting with you, I think I'm justified to ask _you_ what the _hell_ got _that_ sort of reaction out of her."

Misato flinched back involuntarily, before she reasserted herself, and leaned back in.

"You're… serious?" She whispered.

"Yes, I _am_ ," Mari hissed. "Full-blown, curled-up, inconsolable _sobbing_. Clearly something _fucked up_ there, and I… I…"

"…I don't know what to _do_ ," the girl finished. Almost as quickly as it had arrived, Mari's aggression had fizzled away into simple distress. "I don't know what to do, and I spent an _hour_ trying to think of some way to help, but I just… I _need_ to _know_ … what _happened_ then? Just… anything?"

As the words sank in, Misato sighed, and slumped back.

"I… I don't know what happened—I was just bringing up the new Eva unit that was going to be coming over soon, and she… got aggressive and _stormed out_."

"…Wait, what?"

"Nerv First Branch has recently finished their work on Unit 07—they even picked out a pilot for us," Misato answered. "I was hoping that I could have it fill Asuka's role while she finished… recovering…" Slowly, awareness seemed to dawn on her.

"And… I was going to move her into _backup_ ," the woman finished. " _That_ must have been it."

 _New Eva. Asuka's role. Backup._

"…Did she say anything?" the brunette asked. She was pretty sure she'd figured it out.

"'How dare you', I think."

Mari leaned back, and slouched her shoulders.

"…Misato," she muttered. "Picture this."

"Imagine you're completely and utterly _amazing_ —the _best_ at your job, second to _nobody_. And it's because you've made it your _life_. Because you've entirely devoted yourself to it."

"But you get hurt. Over, and over, and over. And then you get really hurt. And when you start to get better, your boss tells you 'hey, because you've been taking a beating, we're going to move you into a secondary role. Oh, don't worry- we've got someone who can take over for you for a while'." Mari looked back down, and focused on the woman.

"That's _Asuka_ , Misato. Look, I can't pretend I've got front row seats to whatever's been going on in her head recently, but I know how _I'd_ feel in that situation."

"Replaced," Misato finished. "… _Dammit_. Of course." The woman pressed a hand to her head, and sighed. "Nerv _finally_ gets a new Eva Unit operational, and in exchange I may have ended up costing us our ace pilot. _Brilliant_."

Mari exhaled.

"Look. I still don't know what to do here," the girl said. "I don't even know if I _can_ do anything, because the issue's partly _your_ work; _you_ have to do something."

"Like _what?"_ Misato hissed back. "I'm not exactly going to rescind my order, Mari—Asuka _shouldn't_ be on the front lines, not in her state."

"Then… I don't know, change the _phrasing_ or something? You said backup—you said reserves. Call it… something else!"

The older woman brought her reply to a halt, and blinked at the comment.

.

"…Call it… something else?" she repeated. "Call it _something else_. Huh. That… actually might _work_." Now _Mari_ paused.

"Wait, really? I was just making stuff up there."

"Yes, _really_. This whole thing's been such a mess recently that it could easily make sense that I just _messed up_ what I was saying. I could say that I meant to assign her to _support_ instead."

The girl blinked again. She'd gotten the opportunity before to listen to some of Misato's more eccentric plans, but seeing one take shape in front of her was a whole different matter.

"Oh, of course!" she joined in enthusiastically. "And a support role would keep her _out_ of melee, and further away from danger, but _wouldn't_ make it seem like you were straight up _pulling her away_ from it!"

Misato nodded.

"Hm. Mari?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll need your help as well," the woman said. "Given how my last meeting with her went, I think it'd be better if you were the one to notify Asuka of the 'mistake', rather than me."

"Mhm." The Fourth Child nodded in agreement. That made sense; Asuka would probably tolerate Mari trying to relay an apology than Misato doing it in person.

"And, I'll need you to do one more thing for me."

"Yeah? Wossat?"

The colonel took a breath.

"I'd like for you to be in charge of the Fifth Child's training," she said. "I'd originally asked Asuka if she could do that, and that… probably exacerbated her idea that I was replacing her."

 _Training?_ Mari thought. _Me? Really?_ It wasn't exactly an idea Mari herself would have gone with—all _her_ training had basically consisted of learning on the job for four years, and a glorified cheat sheet of Eva's special abilities. Still… she _supposed_ it could work.

Mari nodded.

"Sure thing."

"So, it's a plan then?" the woman asked. Mari grinned, and offered her hand.

"It's a plan."

Their hands shook.

.

[-]

.

"…Sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight. It's stopped rainin', everybody's in a play—and don't you know, it's a beautiful new day… hey, hey…"

Mari sang to herself, as Evangelion Unit 08 stomped out onto the sandy red beach. She'd been deployed a good hundred kilometres north of the Maritime Preservation Zone—near where First Branch was due to drop off their new Eva Unit. She and _hachigouki_ , however, were here for two reasons; to guard against any NS activity in the area, and to get a start on training the new pilot—since, unlike with the Third Child and herself, Nerv actually had a _chance_ this time to help the Fifth learn what to do with their Evangelion _before_ they ended up being thrown at a rampaging Angel.

Thankfully, things had started to clear up over the two days after her arrangement with Misato. Repairs on the fleet had been coming along, the sky had been clear of Seele units, and some modicum of peace had been re-established. Asuka had even started to come out of her room again. Granted, it was mainly just to grab food, use the bathroom, or check up on Unit 02, but… honestly, that was good enough for Mari.

 _Anyways…_

A muffled grunt came from the blue Evangelion, before it tossed the bulky cases it held under its arms into the dirt. The rectangular slabs were simply portable versions of the _Rainbow_ 's equipment racks—her power feed had been taken care of already, courtesy of the Nerv VTOLs and a nearby electrical station. Freed of the encumberment, Unit 08 and Mari gave their shoulders an exaggerated roll, and settled into a more relaxed posture.

"…Mr. Blue Sky is living here today," the girl finished, as she turned towards the sea.

 _It shouldn't be too much longer_ , she thought.

.

…And there it was. Off in the distance, a speck of black hung in the middle of the sky above the ocean—one of Nerv's transport planes. Slowly, the speck grew closer and closer, and Mari could make out details. It was an American style long-distance plane, for one; instead of being held face-down in a sealed pod, the Eva would be carried at an upright angle underneath the craft, and clamped onto a cross-shaped structure. While it wasn't as useful for combat, the design meant that a more precise landing was possible. For another—compared to the warm oranges and reds of Unit 02, the pitch black of Unit 03, the mixed silver and green of Unit 05, or the flashy purple of Unit 01- the Eva was pretty clearly distinct from all the others she'd seen before.

 _Good thing, too. It'd never do to mix up Evas,_ Mari thought, as the plane dropped into what seemed like a sort of landing pattern. The engines on the aircraft's wings unlocked, and swivelled down to provide vertical thrust, while its tail engines continued to propel it towards the shore.

The transport cross detached, and dropped into the shallows. A plume of reddish water and sand sprayed up, as the bottom of the crucifix anchored itself in the earth.

Mari promptly started over towards the Eva, intent on getting a closer look.

.

Instantly, Mari could recognise Unit 07 as a production model, rather than some sort of special variant—the Eva's shoulder pylons, chestplate, and general build were unmistakable in that regard. Beyond that, however…

The armour on Unit 07's main body and legs was mostly a very glossy black, which looked almost like it had been oiled at first glance. The flexible coating across its joints and arms was also black, but it was flat as opposed to the glossy sheen of the armour. Other bits of colour were also present; its lower legs and hands were grey instead of black, and sections of amber and white armour ran across its body—on the Eva's biceps, midsection, knees, pelvis, front and top of each shoulder wing, as well as the sides of its head. Really, it was kind of like how Unit 00 had looked, if one had swapped most of the orange for black, and most of the white for orange instead.

Unit 07's helmet was also interesting. The saurian motif used by the earlier American units was distinctly present, but a radome lens was mounted on its crown, and a pair of sensor fins—like Unit 08's—stuck up from the sides of its head. Altogether, Mari thought it looked rather like a dog, or maybe a jackal.

As the Fourth Child examined it, a low hum started in the Evangelion's chest, and rose in volume. Two points of light flickered in its eye sockets, before they solidified into a pair of white slits. The Brit smiled.

"Looks like _someone's_ up and ready to go," she noted aloud, and sent a mental command to her unit's communications equipment. As the contact window popped open, Unit 08 stepped forwards, and playfully flicked the black Eva on its faceplate. "Oi, newbie; rise and shine!"

Unit 07's eyes flickered for a second, before the Eva looked up with what could only be indignation.

 _"Hey, what was_ that _for?"_ a masculine voice replied in Japanese. Mari blinked in curiosity.

 _A boy?_ She wondered. Fortunately, the Fourth Child didn't have to wait long for the audio link to gain its visual component as well, and give Mari her first glimpse of the new pilot.

The boy was clearly Japanese, and a fairly athletic youth as well; thanks to the skin-tight nature of the plugsuits, Mari had a nice view of his upper body to confirm that. His hair was dark and crew-cut, and his eyes were brown. All in all… not too shabby, she supposed.

"Nothin'," Mari replied with a smirk. "Just saying hello to the newest member of the Eva corps." The other pilot huffed, and his brow furrowed.

 _"Well, don't get_ too _excited. I ain't here 'cause I wanna have_ fun _, Ms. Smiles,"_ he said back. _"The fellows back at First Branch just thought I had the right ability and threw me in this thing. Believe me; I wasn't exactly jumpin' for joy when they told me about it."_

Mari gave a mock pout in response.

"Well if you're gonna be a downer about it…"

 _"Hey, I just said I wasn't the biggest fan of piloting, not that I wasn't gonna_ do _it,"_ the Fifth Child replied, rising to Mari's bait. _"…'sides, I've seen what these things can do. An Eva put my little sis in the hospital, back before Third Impact."_

Mari's smirked disappeared, and a look of intrigue replaced it. That was… interesting. And more than that, it was a little familiar.

 _Someone put in the hospital because of Eva… I could_ swear _I've seen that somewhere in Nerv's files…_

"…Say, newbie," Mari asked. "What's your name? I can't just refer to you as the Fifth Child."

 _"Suzuhara,"_ he replied. _"Toji Suzuhara."_

"Well then, Toji Suzuhara," the bespectacled girl said back to him. "I'm Mari. Fourth Child Mari Illustrious Makinami, at your service!"

 _"…Illustrious?"_

 _"Illustrious,"_ Mari confirmed, as she sent Unit 08 stepping around the transport cross, and closed the video window. "Now if you'll hold your questions for a bit, I'll just help you down from this thing, and we can get started!"

Her Eva reached behind it, and pulled on a lever. With a clank and a hiss of steam, the clamp holding Unit 07's left wrist to the cross flipped open, and let the Eva's arm jolt forwards. Toji made a surprised noise, as Mari moved around to the other arm of the cross. Unit 08 gave the second lever a tug, and dropped into a squat to reach the third one, which held both of the black Eva's ankles in place. The clamps fell open just as smoothly as the first two had, leaving only the shoulder locks still closed.

"Alright, one set left," Mari alerted her new teammate. "Quick note, by the way; do try _not_ to fall on your face. Standing up's kind of a pain, given how the Entry Plug's oriented."

 _"Try not to fall on my—"_ Toji's words were cut off by Mari flipping the final switch. The massive locks wrapping above and below Unit 07's shoulders abruptly disengaged, dropping the Eva feet-first into the shallow waters. The black-armoured cyborg immediately stumbled, and staggered forwards with a distinctive lack of balance. However, part of its awkwardness in moving was quickly made clear—that being the rather heavy-looking experimental engine mounted on the small of its back.

Mari ducked under the arm of the transport cross, and grabbed the other Eva by its shoulder pylon—just in time before it would have fallen over.

"Oh, _relax_ ," the Fourth Child said nonchalantly, as she helped the boy get Unit 07 balanced again. "The Evas run on a neural link; just _think_ your commands, and it'll obey them, okay?"

Slowly, Unit 07 turned its reptilian head over towards her, and managed a little nod.

" _Excellent_. Now tell me, Mr. Toji Suzuhara, just how much experience do you have with the Evangelions?"

 _"Um…"_ the Fifth Child muttered. _"…Well, ya see, my pal Shinji, he was the pilot for one a' these things, and my other pal and I had snuck out of the shelters… right when one a' those Angels was attacking. Wanted to get a better look at it, ya know."_ The boy took an audible breath, and continued. _"Anyways, Shinji ends up kinda getting his ass kicked by the thing, and crashes down near where we're at. He couldn't fight with us so close by—not without squishin' us—so we ended up havin' ta get in with him. It was… pretty crazy."_

 _"That's most 'f it, really. Got a bit of a primer before they got me into this thing; 'think 'bout doing whatever you want it to do,' n' that sorta stuff. It's… a… not much."_

"Hm." Mari leaned back in her seat, and let her Eva release its grip on Unit 07's shoulder. "Well, I guess that's better than nothing." With that, the girl started off towards the shore, red water splashing around Unit 08's feet. "Come along, then."

 _"Wait, what? But how?"_

"Walk," Mari answered. "There's no way I'm gonna turn you into an ace like Princess and I, but I can at _least_ help you figure out the basics. Now, _come on._ "

As the slate blue Eva stomped back onto dry land, Mari looked over at the side of the Plug, checking Unit 08's peripheral vision for the Fifth Child's progress. Slowly, the glossy black Eva took a lurching step forwards, and another, and another. The movements themselves were halting, and more than a little shaky—she wouldn't be surprised if the new kid managed to trip himself up again. Unit 08 lurched to a stop.

"You're thinking of taking the individual steps, aren't you?" the girl asked, almost rhetorically.

 _"Huh? Well, yeah, but-"_

"Stop it," Mari said. "When you're just walking about normally, do you think 'left foot here, right foot there—left foot here, right foot there'? No, of _course_ you don't. So just _walk_. If you _must_ think of something, think 'go over to Mari so she can teach you _properly_ '. Got it?"

 _"I- hey!"_ Toji shouted back, audible annoyed by Mari's condescending—and completely intentional—attitude towards him. The girl smirked, and looked over her Eva's shoulder in time to see Unit 07 stomp over through the shallows, its shoulders hunched and its neck jutting out aggressively. _"What the hell's_ dat _supposed to mean?!"_

 _Hm,_ she thought smugly. _Looks like getting under his skin_ worked _._

The sable-armoured unit lurched to a halt right in front of her, close enough that another step would've smashed the Evas' armoured foreheads together. Mari reactivated the video feed on her end, and allowed a self-satisfied smile to cross her face.

 _Misato wants training? I'll give her training—teach him how to fight_ right _with an Eva. You don't need to fiddle around with joysticks and stuff—you just want to_ hurt _your enemy enough._

"What does what mean?" the Fourth Child answered sweetly. Toji scowled further.

 _"Don't play dumb—you're talkin' to me like I'm some sorta idiot!"_ he shot back.

"Oh, have I?" Mari asked. "Well, that must be because _that's_ the impression you've given me; a green-blooded idiot who can't even control something that responds to your _thoughts_. _Really_ , one has to wonder why they even _gave_ you the Eva in the first place, if all you've done is tag along with one of the _real_ pilots."

Then Mari said something that went a little too far.

"I bet you haven't even grasped how much we have to _sacrifice_ here in Nerv—"

A moment later, something slammed into the side of her Eva's face. Pain spiked in Mari's eye socket, eliciting a surprised yelp as Unit 08 was knocked flat on its ass in the sand.

 _"Shut up!"_ Unit 07 rose up above her, one arm extended into a clenched fist. _"You don't get to talk about sacrifice like it's—"_

Mari didn't let him finish. Girl and Eva practically launched themselves back up, and drove their fist into Unit 07's face before it could respond. The black Eva staggered back, only for Unit 08 to grab its pylon, and yank it forwards again—just in time to drive a knee into its armoured stomach. There was a gasp of pain from Unit 07's pilot, before the Eva grabbed onto the other side of Unit 08's face, and shoved it away.

Mari grunted, and yanked her control grips the other direction, bringing Unit 08 to a halt. The girl's lips drew back in a maniacal grin, as her Eva dropped into a brawler's stance. Unit 07 similarly tensed up, and planted its feet firmly in the sand.

"Now… now, _that's_ more _like_ it," the Fourth Child chuckled. "I bet you didn't even bother thinking there—you just wanted to beat my _face_ into the _dirt_ , didn't you?"

 _"And I still_ do _, ya bitch!"_ Toji snapped, as the video feed from Unit 07's plug opened up as well. Mari's grin widened.

 _"Good."_

Her Evangelion pushed off, and struck out with a right hook, only for Unit 07 to catch the blow with its left arm. The black Eva threw a counter-punch, the blue Eva threw one of its own, and both staggered back from each other.

"Now, _now_ you get it… don't you, Suzuhara?" Mari asked, as her heart pounded in her chest. "Eva isn't separate—isn't just some _machine_. It's an _extension of yourself_."

 _"What… what the hell are you talking about?"_ Toji demanded back in between his own heavy breaths. Mari opened her mouth to answer—only for an alarm to go off inside Unit 08. A very _familiar_ alarm. The girl's eyes widened, and refocused just as the alarm itself popped up in hologram form. It wasn't the warning for incoming Nemesis Series units, nor anything else that Nerv had encountered after Third Impact.

In fact, the last time she'd heard this alarm had been more than four years ago—just before the Tenth Angel had attacked.

 _ALERT: BLOOD PATTERN BLUE DETECTED_

 _ELEVENTH ANGEL - IDENTIFIED_

Mari's face froze, her mouth contorted into a sort of horrified smile as she stared at the two lines of text. It… it was another one. After all these years, another one had finally shown up.

And if it was anything like the _last_ one…

.

 _A trickle of blood ran down the right side of Mari's face, pooling around her eye before continuing on. Not like it mattered. She couldn't even feel the right half of her head anymore—it was just a mess of static and pain, like her left arm._

 _Mari felt her fingers tremble—felt the Eva's fingers tremble—felt the boy, standing in the palm of her hand. So small. So fragile._

 _Off in the distance, she could see Unit 00. The Eva was… broken. Its arms had been vapourised, and the front face of its body was melted and burnt from the point-blank detonation of the N2 warhead. Towering above it; the Angel. The thing that refused to die._

 _The Angel's bony jaws unhinged, and swung open grotesquely. Before Mari's eyes, a set of gums and teeth—human teeth—extended out, and spread in turn. Something like a tube of flesh shoved its way out, and rose from the depths of the thing's throat like a snake._

 _The end split. And then it struck._

 _One instant, Unit 00 was standing there—the next, it was gone, and the hideously distended tube of flesh and teeth retracted back into the Angel's mouth. The undying monster hunched over, and colour rippled across its bare flesh._

 _"I-it's absorbing the Eva… even the p-pilot…" Mari murmured—half to the boy, and half to herself, to remind herself that this wasn't just some horrible nightmare._

 _Slowly, the sack of flesh that was the Tenth Angel's underbelly began to warp and bulge. It lengthened downwards, stretching into a trunk, and split into two smaller trunks. The massive pair of tentacles slid down, and collapsed in on themselves like a telescope._

 _Then the Tenth Angel stood up, supported by a pair of legs that were little more than stumps below the knee, and its grotesquely long—grotesquely human—arms swung down to its side. It was a mockery; a fusion of Angel, and Eva, and the girl who had been inside it._

 _"G-get out of here," Mari whispered._

 _"Get out, or you're going to die."_

.

Mari reached up, and smacked herself in the side of the head. _No time for living in the past, Mari,_ she thought to herself.

"Shut up, just shut up _now_ ," the Fourth Child ordered, as she called up another communications channel.

"Misato!" She called. "We've got a big problem here!"

 _"The Angel?"_ the woman answered back. _"Our sensors just detected it as well; I'm having the Magi calculate its location as we speak."_

 _"Excuse me, can someone tell me what da hell's_ happening?" Toji demanded. Mari's eyes flicked over to his window.

"You've seen Evangelions fight Angels before, right? Well, now you'll get to see it again— _up close_. We've got incoming." The boy paled a little at that.

 _"H-hang on, you mean…"_

"Yep! Eleventh Angel; happening _right fucking now_ ," Mari replied, before she looked back again. "Misato?"

 _"Bad news, Mari. The Angel's several hundred kilometres southeast of us—but it's not coming this way. Currently, the Magi estimate that its current trajectory will lead it straight to the Maritime Preservation Zone. The fleet won't be able to intercept it before it makes landfall—but the Evangelions can. I know you don't have much in the way of weaponry with you, but…"_

"But you want me and the new kid to hold it back until you and Princess can make it over there," Mari finished.

 _"If the MPZ falls, we'll have lost one of the very few remaining instances of the oceans' ecology, and one of the major facilities making progress in detoxifying them. It is_ vital _that this be prevented."_

Mari nodded.

"Roger that."

 _"And how about you… pilot Suzuhara?"_ The woman asked in turn. Mari heard Misato sigh. _"…You went there with Shinji, didn't you? Before Third Impact?"_

 _"…Yes, ma'am."_ Toji and Unit 07 nodded.

 _"Then you know what's at stake. Can we count on you? To protect it?"_

Another nod from the Fifth Child. Mari started to smile again—but it was a confident sort of smirk.

 _"In that case; pilots Makinami and Suzuhara, you are hereby authorised to engage the Angel!"_ the woman announced to them. _"Good luck."_

Then the channel closed.

Unit 08's stance relaxed, and the Eva shifted to a more upright posture.

"Suzuhara?" the Fourth Child asked. "Give me your engine." Toji blinked.

 _"Huh? Why?"_

"A couple reasons," Mari answered. "Number one; I'm currently running off an umbilical, and it won't stretch all the way to the MPZ, so I'm gonna need something a bit more mobile—and number two; while you're not half bad in a fight, I'm still a lot more experienced. Ergo, _I'm_ gonna be fighting up close, and I'd rather do that with an experimental engine than an easily-severed umbilical cable."

"Besides, I'd rather not see you killed on your first Angel battle," she added, as Unit 08 stalked around towards the other Eva's back. "Now, engine please?"

Unit 07 tilted its head in confusion.

 _"…Hang on a second, weren't we just fighting? And now you're all buddy-buddy?"_

Mari shrugged, and grabbed onto the engine casing by a handle mounted near the top of it.

"Eh, not exactly. That was a bit of a farce on my part," she said. "Now, engine? And you'll want to switch to power-saving mode."

There was a click, followed by a descending whine as the experimental engine unlocked from Unit 07's back. The Eva's eyes dimmed similarly, and its posture slackened. With practiced ease, Mari ejected the umbilical power cable from her own Eva, and swung the pack-shaped casing around to fill its place.

 _"A farce?"_

"Mhm," Mari nodded, as the pack locked into place. Another hologram opened up in her view, letting her know that the Eva's software was updating to accommodate for the new hardware.

 _Lucifrence Engine?_ The girl thought, as the whine of the engine's reaction started up again. _Hmm, interesting name._

"I didn't actually _mean_ those things— _well_ , I meant to piss you off by saying them, but it's not like I actually _believed_ what I said. Hang on."

With that, Unit 08 grabbed the other Eva by the waist, and hoisted it up and over its shoulder—eliciting an indignant exclamation from Toji in the process.

 _"I—Hey!"_

"Now, as to _why_ I did that? _Why_ I bothered pissing you off, and tried to get you to fight me? Well, it was kinda the fastest way I could get subconscious action out of you; it's a _lot_ easier to pilot Eva if you're only actively thinking about half the stuff you have to do."

As the girl talked, Unit 08 strolled over towards where the weapons cases had been, and kneeled down to pick them up in its other hand. While definitely awkward, Mari had more than enough experience with the containers, and managed to pick them up—with a _little_ trouble.

"Alright then, ready to go," Mari said, before sparing a final glance at the video screen. "Oh, and Toji? One last thing."

 _"…yeah?"_

Mari grinned, as her Eva planted one foot back, gathering up its energy.

"Welcome to the team."

With that, Unit 08 pushed off, and broke into a run.

.

[-]

.

 _Jesus, Misato's right_ , Mari thought. _Even though I'm hauling more than my own weight in baggage, this baby can_ move _. Hell, if I_ wasn't _carrying all this stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if_ _I_ _could go supersonic!_

Eva Unit 08's feet pounded craters into the red soil, as it raced across the landscape like a bullet train on legs. The scenery passed her in a blur; not even the Eva's dramatically enhanced senses could get a clear view of her surroundings. Looked like she and Toji could reach the MPZ with time to spare.

And _speaking_ of Toji…

"Hey, number five? You still there?" Mari asked, trying to keep her sentences short so she could breathe.

 _"Yeah?"_ Toji replied. _"What's the problem?"_

"This… the engine. Lucifrence Engine. You know how it works?" The fact had just occurred to Mari that… well, that her Eva was _kinda_ wearing an experimental power source which she knew next to _nothing_ about. Or rather, it had just now sunk in. Mari was… kinda curious.

 _"Um… not really,"_ the Fifth Child answered. _"They didn't exactly gimme a_ lecture _on dis thing, you know? All I know is dat it's kind of a… 'Better version of Unit 04's', or something."_

"Unit 04?" Mari repeated. "Didn't that one kind of _explode?"_

 _"…maybe?"_

Mari inhaled.

"…well then," she muttered under her breath. "In that case, I'd… better hope they fixed that issue."

With that, Mari turned her attention forwards and outwards again. They were getting closer—she could see the shift in the geography as Unit 08 sprinted out of the forest and onto the beach, several trees being torn up behind her from air displacement. Further along the coast, Mari was able to _just_ make out the white, angular shape of part of the Maritime Preservation Zone behind the bend, before her Eva shot forwards again.

About half a minute later, Eva Unit 08 finally skidded to a halt, a little ways outside the facility's premises. A bulky substation had been set up, with two sets of cables leading off of it—one heading the Zone itself, and one attached to the signature Evangelion Umbilical Plug. After Third Impact, the power port had been one of the modifications made to the Maritime Preservation Zone, in case the facility came under attack and needed Evangelion support. Now, it seemed it would finally see some use.

"Okay, Suzuhara," Mari announced, as she bent over to set the jet black Evangelion on its feet again. "Here's the plan. Power up Unit 07 to operational standards, go grab the umbilical, and plug yourself in. After that, come back here and I'll get you a weapon. Okay?"

Mari stood, just in time to see Unit 07's eyes and shoulder logos light up.

 _"Yeah, alright,"_ the Fifth Child replied. The black and amber Eva nodded its head in confirmation, and stomped off to the power port. With that taken care of, Mari turned to her other task.

The storage cases landed on the pinkish sand with a muffled thump—shortly followed by Mari's slate blue Evangelion stepping on their 'release' switches. A number of sections on the cases' fronts split down the middle and flew out to the sides, revealing the two weapons stored inside them. One of them was a standard _Type MM-99_ assault rifle—also known to her by the moniker of 'Pallet Rifle', a corrupted reference to its use of caseless 'pellets' for ammunition. Nothing special there, but the gun was as useful as ever. The _other_ weapon, however… well, Mari definitely wanted to use _that_.

The 'Heat Lance', as it was known, had been one of a small number of experimental Evangelion-use weapons constructed after Third Impact, and was one of the even smaller number that saw regular use. The designation of 'lance' was a bit of a misnomer though, as the polearm more resembled a boar spear with a broad, spade-shaped head. There had been two things that had made the heat lance very useful to Mari and Unit 08. First off, its shaft was segmented and held several retracting joints internally. This prevented it from snapping when hit from the side, and also let the spear fold over itself several times, allowing it to be stored in the standard weapons cases that would have been too short to fit a more standard polearm. Second was its name—heat. The head of the heat lance held an extremely exothermic metal within the blade, which was hooked up to a nuclear decay battery. When activated, this had the unique property of causing the spearhead to get hot. Hot enough to make the tungsten carbide blade glow like a volcano, not to mention melt through most forms of armour.

Needless to say, having a tool that could both stand up to her rough-housing and dish out an impressive amount of hurt at the same time made Mari _very_ happy. The girl reached down, and pulled out the folded weapon from its case. A snap of her Eva's wrist, and the heat lance uncoiled into its usable state.

"Sweet," Mari grinned, as the decay battery heated the blade to a dull red glow. Now ready, the girl turned and looked over her shoulder towards her fellow pilot. Unit 07 was already making its way back over, the umbilical power cable trailing from its back.

 _"…okay, you have a_ spear?" She heard Toji exclaim incredulously. _"I… how?"_

"Trade secret," Mari said, grinning. "There's a gun in the other case for you, by the way."

Unit 07 narrowed its eyes.

 _"A gun? Ya know I don't have any experience with shootin' things, right?"_

Mari opened her mouth to reply, before another alarm went off. The girl cut herself off mid-sentence, and focused on the new message. It was _here_.

 _"Shit,"_ Mari cursed, and levelled Unit 08's lance at the open ocean. "No time, just pick up the gun—it's not _that_ hard to use, and the Eva will compensate. Just hurry!"

As the black Evangelion obeyed her orders, Mari looked out at the water. A ways away, part of the ocean swelled up—a clear sign of something _big_ moving just under its surface. The roiling bulge of reddish water began to close in, as the Angel began its final approach.

And then, just under a kilometre from the shore, it breached.

At first, Mari wasn't sure _what_ she saw. A massive, bullet-shaped cone of muscle and bone erupted out of the sea, glimmering white flesh sheathing the otherwise featureless surface of the Angel. It seemed to rise out of the water, as foam churned around its base.

That was when what Mari had thought to be the Angel's body split horizontally, and bellowed like a foghorn—revealing several rows of long, bony _teeth_ , and something glinting at the back of its throat.

It wasn't a body. It was a _head_.

Water cascaded from the creature's flanks, as the Eleventh Angel rose from the ocean like a living tidal wave, revealing itself once and for all. It was a supple, streamlined creature, with black-membraned fins sprouting from its sides, and a very long tail. It was like some sort of primeval shark or ray, if there had ever been one that was more than twice the length of an aircraft carrier. A fleshy spade-shaped mantle protruded from under its jaws, and continued all the way back to its pectoral fins, until both transformed mid-leap—the fins lengthened into something between a flipper and a bat's wing, and the mantle split down the centre, and unfolded into a pair of curved appendages.

The Angel reared back on its tail for a moment, held aloft by the power of its AT Field. Its head tilted, and curved around—and turned towards the Evangelions. In response, Mari snarled, baring her teeth at the monstrous creature. For a second, the Eleventh Angel remained still, as if contemplating how to deal with the two cyborgs. Then its immense jaws swung open, and a yellow-orange glow lit up in its throat, forming a cross-shaped flash momentarily.

 _AT Field, maximum—!_

Mari barely managed to send the mental command in time, before an explosion of light and heat slammed into her Eva's AT Field. The girl yelped in surprise, and frantically dug her feet in before the shockwave could bowl Unit 08 over into Unit 07.

"Alright, that's it!" Mari shouted, as she glared back up at the Eleventh Angel. The slate blue Eva took an aggressive step forwards, and tightened its grip on the heat lance. "Suzuhara, get your Field up and get ready! This son of a bitch is _dead!_ "

 _"Okay!"_ Toji said, as he stepped up beside her. _"What's the plan, four-eyes?"_

Mari raised an eyebrow at the Fifth Child.

"…Four-eyes?" The brunette asked. Then she grinned. "Heh! I _like_ it. Anyways—you, get in front of the facility, keep your AT Field up so shark-boy over there doesn't murder you or anyone else with another cross blast, and—most important of all—if that Angel's got me in a tricky spot; shoot it!"

"And, as for _myself,"_ she continued. "My job's simple—I'm gonna stab that thing in its _goddamn face_."

Unit 07 shrugged a little bit, and lifted its rifle.

 _"Well, I'm not gonna say that's the most complicated plan I've heard…"_ Toji admitted. _"…but then again, I wasn't_ lookin' _for one of those. Sounds good enough to me, lady."_

"Then let's do it!" Mari announced. With the Lucifrence Engine rumbling away on her back, the Fourth Child levelled her spear, and charged the Angel.

Almost immediately, the Eleventh Angel responded in turn, and dove down again, throwing up a spray of pinkish-reddish water as it hurtled forwards. The slate blue Eva's legs tensed and sprang mid-run, which sent the polearm-wielding cyborg into an arcing leap at its colossal foe. Mari's AT Field concentrated, and struck—just as she swung down, and the Angel leapt up. The girl smashed through the remaining layers of the Eleventh's Field, and rammed her spear into the monster's snout. The superheated blade sank into the Angel's flesh like a hot knife through butter, before her downwards momentum tore a bloody red rent all the way along its upper jaw.

The Angel shrieked in pain, and thrashed from side to side, dislodging the Fourth Child before she could cut anymore of it. Before Mari could fully recover, one of its mantle-limbs struck her in the side—sending Unit 08 crashing into the seabed.

As she shakily pushed herself back up, Mari could feel the familiar aches and pains of neural feedback start to set in once more.

 _Don't care_ , she thought. _Doesn't matter. Kill the Angel._

Unit 08 closed its hand around the shaft of the heat lance again, causing the decay battery to reconnect with the blade. Revitalised by its pilot's willpower, the Evangelion erupted out of the bay, and spun to face its opponent again. The Eleventh Angel, however, did not look back at her. It was far too busy with other matters—namely, the barrage of shells that Unit 07 was firing off at it. None of it was actually hurting, or even _hitting_ the Angel—the other Eva was too far away to neutralize the phase space, so every single round just bounced off of the hexagonal planes of energy.

Even so, Mari appreciated a good distraction.

 _"Rrraah!"_ the girl yelled, as she struck out with a leaping thrust of the heat lance. With her own Field fully focused on bring down the enemy's, the Eleventh Angel's AT Field did nothing to stop the spear before it cut into the monster's flank. The Angel shrieked again, and rounded—but this time Mari was ready. The blue Eva sprang backwards, moving just out of the way of the incoming mantle-limb that slashed at her. Immediately, she pushed off again, and leapt up onto the Angel itself.

As Mari scrambled awkwardly up its side, the Angel bellowed, and shook itself in an attempt to throw her off again. In response, the girl plunged the heat lance into the Eleventh's flesh again, using it as an anchor against the monster's thrashing.

"Suzuhara! I've weakened its field—shoot the Angel again!" Mari yelled, as she tried to hold on. It didn't seem like the Angel could reach her here—she'd managed to grab onto a spot just behind its head and above the mantle, so it couldn't bite her, and it couldn't strike her.

Over by the shore, Mari could hear the mechanical snarl of Unit 07 opening fire with its pallet rifle once more. The Eleventh Angel hissed, and swung them both around towards the weapon—just as Mari heard the noise come to a _distressingly_ sudden stop.

 _"Okay,_ that's _not good,"_ Toji announced. The black Evangelion glanced down at its rifle nervously. _"I… I think this thing's empty."_

Mari blinked.

"…It's—"

Something big and _painfully_ strong collided with Mari's back, and _slammed_ her into the Angel's side. Part of Mari could swear she heard something _crack_ , before the blow drove the breath from her lungs, and sent feedback screaming along her nerves. The Angel's wing—for that was what it had been—wrapped its branching fins around Unit 08's body and flung it off, like someone pulling out a tick. The Eva was sent flying, and crash-landed in the shallows next to Unit 07, its spear embedding itself in the wall of the MPZ. This time, Mari _definitely_ felt something break.

 _"I—M-Mari? Four-eyes?_ Hello?"

Mari let out a little wheezing noise in reply. Slowly, the girl forced herself back to sit upright—both in the entry plug, and as the Eva. The plug walls flickered worrisomely, and parts of it had even devolved into static.

 _En… gine?_ She thought fuzzily. A blurry hologram appeared before her, telling the Fourth Child that yes, the Eva's Lucifrence Engine was still intact.

No, wait. The hologram itself wasn't blurry—that was because her glasses had come off. As she took a constricted breath of LCL, the girl glanced down, and noticed the distinctly oval shape of the battered frames resting on her lap. One hand reached down, and lifted them up to her face. Thankfully, they hadn't suffered any extra cracking.

"…'m here," the girl mumbled into the microphone. "Not… dead yet. _Hachigouki_ … damage report…"

A blueprint-style layout of her Eva popped into existence. There were a _lot_ of red damage warnings—which did nothing to help Mari with narrowing down what parts were hurt the most. Unsatisfied, the girl lifted up one of Unit 08's hands into view, and promptly winced in pain; not only were there more than a couple bruises under the armour, the Eva's middle and index fingers had been snapped back out of their sockets, and pointed away at a ninety-degree angle. Fortunately, the left hand still seemed functional.

In the distance, she could hear a splash, as the Eleventh Angel dropped into the water once more.

 _"Eh, Mari? What should I… ya know…_ do?" Toji continued to ask her. " _I… I can't exactly…"_

"Unit 08, deploy pistols," Mari ordered. Immediately, the Evangelion's shoulder pylons swung open, their internal holsters clamped onto a pair of boxy handguns. The girl took another breath, and turned to look at her new teammate.

"…ditch the rifle, and take a gun," she told him. "I... I can't use both of 'em—my right hand's kinda broken. We'll hold it off."

For a moment, the black Eva hesitated. Mari didn't blame him—but she didn't exactly empathize with him either.

"Come on now," she mumbled, as her Eva pushed itself up onto its feet. Jerkily, Unit 08 reached up, and grabbed one of its pistols with its intact hand. "We've just gotta hold out a bit longer… just until the fleet arrives."

.

 _"…Alright,"_ Toji sighed. Begrudgingly, Unit 07 tossed the empty pallet rifle aside, and grabbed Mari's second handgun. _"But if this gets me killed, I'm gonna blame_ you."

"Hehe…" the brunette chuckled. _"That's_ the spirit."

Off in the bay, the Eleventh Angel swam, travelling in a great big ellipse before it finally circled around towards them. Unit 08 propped its broken hand underneath its left one, and swung the gun up at the Angel. A moment later, Unit 07 did the same.

"I'll drop its Field…" Mari said. "…And you stay on defense. Okay?"

Unit 07 and its pilot both nodded.

 _"Mhm."_

Water churned up in a spray of white and pink as the Angel closed in. In water this shallow, it couldn't submerge completely, so both Children had a clear view of its dorsal half. Closer and closer it came, until…

"Now!" Mari yelled, before she threw her AT Field against the Angel's. At that, the two opened fire, squeezing the triggers of their guns as fast as they could. The heavy linear rounds burst apart when they hit, each shot leaving a messy crater in the Angel's flesh as it continued to barrel forwards. Against another opponent, the shots might have been more effective—but the Eleventh Angel was simply too _massive_ for the flechettes to inflict anything more than minor damage to it.

Inside her plug, Mari could hear someone screaming. She wasn't sure who; Suzuhara? Herself? Both of them? Any of those was just as likely as the others. And still, the Angel kept coming. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish lunged out of the ocean at them. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish slammed into the AT Field barrier that sprang up before it could hit. Nine hundred metres of angry god-fish reared back up, extended its wings, and slammed its face into the barrier a second time with a deafening bellow. With a musical chime, the octagonal plane of energy cracked down the middle, right where the Angel had hit it. Mari pulled the trigger again. The gun went _click_ —her twenty rounds of ammo were gone.

The Eleventh Angel's mouth opened. At the back of its throat, Mari could see the thing's Core begin to glow. This close, another cross blast would tear straight through Unit 07's AT Field like it was rice paper. And then the Angel itself would tear through both Evangelions, and the facility behind them.

However, what came next was _not_ the overwhelming pain of armour and flesh tearing apart.

At least, not for Mari.

.

A series of fireballs erupted against the Eleventh Angel's back, lacerating and burning its body with superheated shrapnel. The monster's head spasmed upwards in a pained shriek, involuntarily firing its cross blast far above its intended targets. As the Angel twisted around and snarled at whatever had hurt it, a new radio link popped up in the Evas' HUD.

 _"Sorry we're late,"_ a very familiar voice announced to both of the pilots. _"We overestimated how fast we could get the fleet to mobilize—but_ now _, we're here to help. Good work, you two."_

"Misato?" Mari asked.

 _"Major?"_ Toji asked. The leader of Nerv chuckled.

 _"Colonel, actually, Suzuhara,"_ she corrected. _"But yes."_

Past the Angel, Mari could make out the sight of the Pacific Fleet closing in, their ships spread out and aiming all their weaponry at the giant monster. The Eleventh Angel hunched forwards, and let out a roar—before a pair of six metre long spikes sprouted from the cleft on the front of its head, turning the bellow into a high-pitched squeal.

 _"Oh, and one_ other _thing you'll probably be pleased to know,"_ Misato added. _"We're not the only ones ready to fight this thing."_

As another round of cannon fire and missiles was sent soaring towards the Angel, something else walked up to the front of the _Over the Rainbow_ , and fired off a second burst of spikes alongside the ships. Something _red_. Mari blinked, and sat up a little more. Hurriedly, she zoomed in as close as her Eva could manage, in an attempt to confirm her hopes.

Evangelion Unit 02 stood on the carrier's deck, as tall and imposing as ever. The cyborg's red and white livery had been completely restored since its earlier battle with the Nemesis Series—and indeed, the only hint of the fight left over was the unfinished appearance of its mechanical left arm. In its hands, the Eva held a long, rectangular weapon with a t-shaped fin on either side of its muzzle—the EM-114 Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow.

Mari's face lit up.

"Princess!"

A third communications link opened, this one providing a video feed of the red Eva's strawberry blonde pilot. Momentarily, an involuntary smile twitched on the Second Child's lips at the sight of her teammate, still alive and kicking.

 _"Unit 08, Unit 07,"_ Asuka said to them. _"This is Evangelion Unit 02—ready to end this, once and for all!"_

As the Angel closed in, Unit 02 turned its full attention to the foe. Asuka tossed the crossbow down behind her, and grabbed the handle of a second weapon that had been brought up on deck. The cyborg swung up—unsheathing a curved, Japanese-style longsword from its scabbard—and brought it down to a readied stance in one motion.

"Magoroku!" Asuka shouted, as she pulled a trigger on the blade's hilt. _"Progressive edge, activate!"_

Unit 02 bent its legs, and sprang into the air, umbilical cable trailing behind it. With a yell, the red Eva swooped down, and rammed the shrieking weapon into the open wound on the Eleventh Angel's head. The Angel shrieked and thrashed back, unintentionally bringing the Eva with it as it tried to retreat from the ship. However, as it swam back towards the facility, the cable ejected from Unit 02's back, preventing it from getting yanked off or dragging the boat with it.

 _"Mari! Can you still fight?!"_ The girl yelled to the brunette. Mari bared her teeth in a tired grin.

"I'm not dead just _yet_ , Princess!"

 _"Then, if you don't mind—grab your lance, and help me kill this thing!"_

"Gladly!" The Fourth Child replied, before she reached up, and pressed one of the buttons on her control stick. There was a momentary prick of pressure around her joints, before Mari could feel her heart speed up, and her pains fade.

 _Artificial adrenaline,_ she thought. So _glad that these plugsuits have it._

Stumbling a little bit. Unit 08 spun around, and pried the heat lance from the facility's wall as precisely as she could.

 _"Hey, wait a second!"_ Toji interjected. _"What am I supposed to do?"_

 _"Wha—?_ Suzuhara?" Asuka blinked, and scowled a little. _"What are_ you _—oh,_ nevermind! _Look, what weapons does Unit 07 have?"_

 _"Um… I've got a pistol, and I think there's some knives in the shoulder fins."_

 _"Good. In that case; stay back, shoot it or stab it if it gets close enough, and be ready to give me your power cable when I need it!"_

Meanwhile, Mari ran off, heat lance held only in her left hand as Unit 08 charged through the water towards the Angel. She jumped, and swung her arm at its face in an attempt to anchor herself as well—but the Eleventh Angel jerked back, and Mari's strike hit its upper lip, just above its many rows of teeth.

 _Shit_ , she thought, as the primeval monstrosity snapped its jaws just below her Eva's feet.

 _"Mari, where's this thing's Core?"_ She heard Asuka ask.

"Inside… its mouth!" Mari grunted back, as she tried to sink the lance further into the Angel's flesh to get herself more leverage. Quickly, Eva Unit 02 darted forwards, and pulled its slate blue teammate up by its free arm onto the Angel's cranium.

 _"Dammit,"_ the Second Child muttered, as she and Mari re-anchored themselves. _"That's going to make killing it_ complicated _, isn't it? Like I didn't have_ enough _to worry about with this Angel."_

"You or Misato have a plan, Princess?"

 _"Depends,"_ the Colonel replied over the comms. _"Are you actually going to listen to it?"_

Mari shrugged.

"…Probably," she replied, with a little uncertainty in her voice.

 _"…Good enough,"_ Misato conceded. _"Now, let's see. The Core's in its_ mouth _, so the only way we can get_ at _it is either by going in after it—which is_ not _happening—or by destroying its head."_

Suddenly, the Eva's head swung over to Mari. _"Mari, while you were fighting it- did the Angel ever regenerate?"_

"Don't think so," the Fourth Child answered.

 _"Perfect,"_ Asuka smirked. _"Now, jump!"_

With that, the red Evangelion yanked its sword out, and leapt off the Angel's head towards the facility. A moment later, Mari followed after her.

 _"Suzuhara!"_ Asuka shouted. _"Umbilical!"_

 _"Alright!"_ the boy replied. As the two swapped the cable between themselves, Mari just stumbled to a halt, and leaned up against the wall. Behind her, she could hear the sounds on gunfire resume—the fleet was bombarding the Angel in order to distract it.

 _"Okay you three, here's the plan,"_ Misato relayed to her and the others. _"You're going to do as much damage to its jaws as you can—try to aim for the joints. If this thing can't heal itself, then once you've finished that and neutralized its Field, we should be able to blow the top of its head off with a focused barrage, and expose its Core for good. From there, you should be able to kill it fairly easily."_

 _"However,"_ she added. _"There's one last thing that I_ have _to stress—don't kill it too close to the facility. If any blood gets in there, it'll_ ruin _the ecosystem inside. So_ be careful. _Is that understood?"_

The three of them nodded.

 _"Roger that."_ "Course." _"Yes, ma'am."_ They all replied.

 _"Then—commence mission!"_

There was a clank when Asuka ejected her umbilical again, before she and Mari took off, with Toji a short distance behind them. The Eleventh Angel hissed as it felt its AT Field fall, and spun around towards the Evangelions. Asuka shouted, firing off a sextet of flechette spikes from one of Unit 02's pylons to draw its attention and open a gap. Predictably, the Angel lashed out at the red cyborg with its mantle-limbs—powerful but clumsy blows that its pilot danced out of the way of with ease. Mari took the opening, and leapt onto the closer limb, before she sprang off. The Fourth Child swung up with a hand-and-a-half strike, which cleaved a burning gash through the muscles and skin of the joint's upper section.

At this, the Angel twisted back, and raised an arm. Mari jumped away, but not before the solid limb cracked against her Eva's ankle. The girl landed with another pained hiss—the joint was badly sprained, and Unit 08 was wearing itself out by the minute.

 _"Cut Unit 08's sync from seventy eight to sixty eight!"_ she heard Misato order. Immediately, the feedback faded again, as did the other sensations coming from the Eva. It was a smart move—a ten percent drop would let the girl keep on fighting without sacrificing too much of the Eva's already disintegrating finesse.

Another barrage of missiles and cannon fire slammed into the Angel, pitting its flesh with craters and burns. Without warning, the monster's cries shot up a couple octaves.

 _"Got it!"_ Asuka yelled over, as it struck out with the wing on its other side. _"Mari! Suzuhara! Hit it again!"_

 _"Okay, Mari, let's go!"_ Toji said to her. Next to her, Unit 07 fired off a single round from the handgun, and promptly reached across to draw a progressive knife from one of its pylons. Mari nodded, and forced her slate blue Unit to stand again. The two darted over, intending to strike at the earlier-made wound. Unfortunately, the black Eva only had a knife—and with that, neither the skill nor the reach to effectively hurt the Angel.

 _"Quick! Get up!"_ Toji shouted, as he ditched the knife and pressed his hands together. Mari hopped onto the small platform, before the boy lifted his arms. Using the force as a springboard, Unit 08 soared up the side of the Angel, and cut another gash through its flesh.

"Oh—screw it!" The girl announced, and reached out with her right arm. Despite the damage, the Eva clamped down with its three functioning fingers—a strong enough hold for her to drive the lance in another time. "Princess, Misato, now!"

 _"All ships, target the right side of the Angel!"_ the latter shouted, her voice carried over into the Eva's comms by dint of its volume. _"Fire!"_

Several missiles slammed into the open wounds, and exploded, sending jets of toxic red blood spraying out of the Eleventh Angel's head into the bay.

 _"Needle pod two, fire!"_ Asuka shouted a moment later. There was a _shunk-shunk-shunk_ as the electromagnetically-propelled darts sank into the Angel's other side, before Mari heard her give a grunt. Soon after, the top of the Eva appeared over the top of the Angel, sword in hand, and split open another wound in the monster. One hand was still hidden—but it was pretty obvious that Asuka had used her flechettes as hand and footholds to get up the Angel.

For a moment, the two Evas' gazes met.

 _"Mari,"_ Asuka said.

"Princess," Mari said back. "…So, how's it going?"

 _"Decent. Still kinda…"_ the Second Child trailed off. _"…but I'm_ alright _. The_ Angel's _kinda new, though."_

"…That it is," the Fourth replied, as her Eva nodded sagely.

 _"Hello?!"_ Toji interrupted. _"Heart-to-heart_ later _, if ya don't mind! I've still got to deal with dis thing!"_

The two turned towards the Angel's front. As it led the monster around towards the fleet again, the black shape of Evangelion Unit 07 glared back at them. Beneath her Eva's limbs, Mari felt muscles begin stretch and flex—the Angel was opening its mouth. Hurriedly, the Fourth and Second Children swung themselves to the side, and skimmed down the Angel's face. Their weapons dug into its flesh, and their combined weight yanked the toothy maw closed as their landing drove its chin into the seabed.

"Grab on!" Mari ordered. As the black Eva planted its foot on the Angel's lower lip and seized the soft tissue on its upper jaw, the girl noticed that it didn't have its umbilical cable plugged in anymore.

 _"Cable wasn't long enough,"_ Toji grunted in explanation.

With that, Unit 02 looked over its shoulder towards the fleet behind them.

 _"Misato! The other side's cut up now! Shoot it!"_

 _"All ships, open fire!"_

An instant later, Mari heard a rumbling mixture of thuds and zips fill the air, as the Pacific Fleet unleashed all its firepower into the Angel's head. The Angel thrashed and howled in fury and pain—though the Evas just barely managed to hold its mouth shut. Explosions blossomed around its neck, joined by sprays of blood and charred meat which rained down into the contaminated waters. The damage was astounding, and the Angel's head and neck was utterly and completely ruined by the time the bombardment finished.

But still, the jaw had stayed on.

 _Shit_.

"…Everyone, _pull!"_ Mari yelled, and yanked on her plug's joysticks, _hard_. Immediately, the blue Eva threw itself back, pulling on the Angel's upper jawline with all its strength. Seconds later, Asuka—and then Toji—realised what their teammate was trying to do, and joined in with their own Evangelions.

The thing was that much of an Evangelion wasn't made of normal material—instead, the matter that makes up Evas and Angels was a particle-wave composite form, which offered a lot of interesting properties. These included not having to rely on an AT Field to stabilize itself when compiled into an organism, being able to self-modify when exposed to its whole's AT Field, and generally offering superior strength and toughness to normal elements.

As such, when three Evas applied as much force and leverage as they possibly could, even something over eleven times their size wasn't going to stand up intact—especially when it'd _just_ taken a _lot_ of damage.

The last few bands of meat holding the jaw in place snapped one by one—until finally, the last piece tore. The Angel's upper jaw ripped off, throwing the Evangelions off their perch as a couple hundred metres of flesh and bone suddenly—and very messily—came loose. The limb hung in the air for a fraction of a second, before it crashed back down on the mandible, and immediately slid off into the bay with the Evas. The pilots let out a disharmonious trio of startled shouts, as they found themselves shoved into the water by a dismembered slab of meat—and a trio of grunts as they made contact.

.

Mari groaned, and looked up in front of Unit 08. The heat lance protruded out of the Angel's head, just a short reach away from her Eva.

 _"Is everyone okay there?"_ she heard Misato ask. _"Evangelions, do you copy?"_

"…Mari here," the girl offered. "I'm… I'm okay. Roughly."

A whirring, shearing sound came from her left. The girl glanced over, just before the ' _Magoroku'_ -class progressive sword sliced through a large chunk of Angel flesh, which Unit 02 pushed off of itself.

 _"Shikinami… present,"_ its strawberry blonde pilot reported. Between the two of them, a third and final Eva Unit—thoroughly stained with red, but clearly wearing black armour—crawled out into the open.

 _"And me. I'm still here, too,"_ Toji added, wearily.

"…We still have an Angel to kill, don't we?" Mari asked. Asuka nodded.

 _"Yeah. So let's finish that damned thing off."_

But as the Evas pulled themselves up and rose to their feet, they heard something. A humming, crackling noise… from right above them. They looked up.

Looming there was the Eleventh Angel. It looked almost as it had before—a great, primeval shark with a split mantle and wing-like fins—except most of its front half was now stained with its own blood, and its head had been obliterated. Instead, its Core sat at the front of its open throat, framed by the Angel's still-intact mandible below it. The red jewel sparked and shimmered from within, building up an immense amount of energy…

 _"Deploy AT Field!"_ Mari and Asuka commanded, followed immediately after by Toji thinking the same. The cross blast erupted from the Eleventh's Core, and sprayed out to the sides. Fortunately, the pilots' combined AT Fields dampened the force of the attack—though _force_ wasn't the only issue. When the blast died, the Evas' armour glowed dimly, softened and weakened from the heat of the attack.

"D- _dammit!"_ Mari hissed in pain, before she managed to steady herself. "This thing's _really_ starting to piss me off now!"

"Princess! Toji!" She said to her teammates. "Come on! We're not done yet!"

The Angel howled at them, and struck out with its mantle-limbs. Mari dodged to the side, and leapt up on one to use it as a springboard—soon followed by Toji doing the same—while Asuka just launched herself at the Angel's mandibles, and vaulted over its wall of teeth. The creature swung itself away, but the Evas had already gotten onto it. Their AT Fields reached out and smothered its own, nullifying its final defense against them. Frantically, the Core lit up, as it tried to charge a second cross blast.

 _"No ya don't!"_

Unit 07 raised its arm, and pumped the trigger twice. The last two rounds embedded themselves in the Core's outer layer with a crack, and the glow snuffed out instantly.

Simultaneously, Mari jumped over the Angel's neck, and Asuka charged across its shrunken tongue—their weapons aimed at the sole vital organ in their enemy's body.

 _"Die!"_

 _Shunk._

 _Crack._

.

The Core had been pierced through twice—the spear from the top, and the sword from the front. For a moment, it darkened from red to brown, and from brown to black. Then, with a noise like breaking glass, it cracked apart.

.

 _"Target AT Field is silent,"_ one of the bridge technicians read out over the radio. _"Eleventh Angel… confirmed deceased."_

As a cheer picked up in the background, Mari closed her channel to the fleet, and let out a tired breath. Around her and the other Evas, the Angel's frozen body had started to break up—without a soul to sustain itself, pieces of muscle and armoured skin just melted away into LCL, like ice cream in a microwave. Unlike the other ones, however, it didn't seem to be dissolving _completely_. Much of its internal musculature remained intact, as did its skeleton. Kinda weird, but… well, the girl didn't have the energy to be concerned.

Rather than quip something and try to get a laugh, Mari just sighed in relief. The Angel was dead, the MPZ was safe, and—upon a little glance at the other com screens—everyone else was alive and mostly intact.

Mari was… content.

And at last… even if it was just for a minute, there was silence.

.


End file.
